


Artists & Engineers: College AU

by siriuslywinchester



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Completed, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-03-14 23:35:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 31
Words: 45,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3429626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siriuslywinchester/pseuds/siriuslywinchester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What started as writing short Simi fics based on prompts has turned into a sort of College AU, so I'm going to see where this takes me.  Sebastian is almost hit by a mysterious Finn on an icy lane.  They spend a whirlwind 24 hours together before Kimi has to disappear on urgent business.  Will Sebastian ever see him again?  And was it really love at first sight?</p><p>disclaimer:  completely fictional, or at least as far as i'm aware it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Icy Lane

**Author's Note:**

> ok this is the first time i've really written any kinda definitely romance-y, partly sexual stuff so i'm sorry if it's really bad.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is having a bad day. His car wouldn't start and now he finds himself slipping and sliding his way back down an icy track on his way back form the grocery store. Almost home, he hears a car behind him but has to dive out of the way of the out of control driver who turns out to be a mysterious handsome Finn.
> 
> Written from [winterbreakprompts](http://winterbreakprompts.tumblr.com) prompt #22

The lane back to Sebastian's village was a long, straight, bumpy track leading through towering trees. The trees were leafless, their branches covered in snow, and offered no protection from the wind that bit at Sebastian's ears despite his thick wooly hat. The road was normally a pleasant - though rather rutted - dirt track, that often gave glimpses of wildlife such as pheasants and deer, but today the road was sheet ice and the creatures were all hiding where they'd found some warmth and shelter.

Sebastian huffed a misty breath, tired of walking along the slippery track. He had two plastic carrier bags of groceries in each hand and they were digging into his fingers, despite his thick gloves. He would normally have driven to the supermarket but his car had refused to start and the recovery company had told him that due to the weather they were only attending people who were stranded away from home, so he'd had to walk to the store.

It wasn't a long walk and he'd quite enjoyed himself on the way, having time to think and breath in the fresh air, but the road was slippery and the further he walked, the heavier the bags seemed to become. He was having trouble staying upright, his legs sliding about on the icy track, and the bags in his hands were not helping his balance. The going was slow, but at least in this cold weather the frozen stuff he'd bought wouldn't thaw out.

From some distance behind him Sebastian could hear a car approaching. He had a quick glance over his shoulder and saw the vehicle approaching at quite a speed. It was sliding all over the place across the road, but the driver was managing to keep it heading forwards without hitting any of the trees. Sebastian was wearing a bright red jacket and was fairly certain that he was visible enough for the driver to notice him, but the car was not slowing down. With just seconds left before he would be hit, Sebastian jumped to the side of the road, landing heavily in the snow, his shopping scattering around him.

Sebastian lay face down in the snow for a while, wondering if it was actually possible for his day to get any worse. He eventually pushed himself up to his knees, his jeans already soaked from the snow. He brushed the snow off his coat and turned in the direction the car had been going. He was surprised to see that it had stopped and a man with shoulder length blonde hair was heading towards him.

"Are you okay?" he shouted, attempting to run towards Sebastian but slipping on the ice, "Did I hit you?"

Sebastian got to his feet, brushing snow from his jeans. He watched as the man approached. He was a good looking guy, his skin was slightly tanned and he had icy blue eyes which froze Sebastian's heart when they met his own.

"No, I jumped in time. Why were you driving so fast?" Sebastian replied, trying to be angry but failing as he didn't want the handsome man, that now stood before him, thinking he was rude.

"Here, let me help you," the man said, beginning to gather the groceries that had escaped from Sebastian's shopping bags. 

Sebastian couldn't help but noticed that the man had a strange accent. He was clearly not local, but he spoke German well. 

Between them, the pair quickly picked up the fruit and vegetables that had escaped the bags as Sebastian had fallen. The man dropped the last few apples into one of the carriers Sebastian was clutching and held a hand out to take some of the bags.

"I'll give you a lift if you like. Where are you heading?" he said, taking two of the bags from Sebastian's hands and turned back towards his car.

"Just the next village along," Sebastian replied, following the man to his car, "A lift would be nice, if you don't mind?".

The mysterious, handsome man was already walking back to his car, so Sebastian followed carefully, trying not to slip on the ice. The last thing he wanted was to fall on his backside in the presence of the most beautiful man he'd ever seen - especially since he already appeared to be the 'damsel in distress' in the whole scene.

"I'm Kimi, by the way," the man said, opening the back door of the car and dropping Sebastian's shopping onto the back seat.

Sebastian opened the passenger side door and slid into the car, glad to be out of the bitter cold wind.

"I'm Sebastian," he replied, pulling his gloves off and holding his hand out for Kimi to shake, "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Just moved over from Finland," Kimi replied, turning the key in the ignition so the car came roaring back to life.

Kimi put the car in gear and started forwards at much slower pace than he'd been driving earlier. After several minutes of awkward silence, they drove into Sebastian's village. Sebastian pointed out which house was his and pulled his keys out of his pocked. Kimi pulled up onto his driveway and stopped the engine, stepping out of the car to help with the bags.

Sebastian unlocked his front door, deposited the bags he was carrying in the doorway and held out his hand to take the remaining bags from Kimi,

"Thanks for the ride. It was very kind of you," he said, blushing slightly as the Finn gave him a grin, refusing to let go off the bags.

"I'll help you get the bags inside," Kimi replied, ushering Sebastian into the house and following him, wiping his feet on the doormat.

Sebastian removed his coat and shoes and headed into the kitchen, dropping the grocery bags on the sideboard. Kimi followed suit, oblivious to Sebastian silently kicking himself for not being more tidy as he looked around and noticed yesterdays dinner plates by the sink, still unwashed.

"Erm...," Sebastian said, biting his lip nervously. Now that Kimi was in his house, he was loath to let him leave without at least trying to get to know him a bit more. What if he never saw such a good looking guy ever again? "Would you like a cup of tea before you head off? To warm you up again for the rest of the journey?"

"Yea, if you don't mind," Kimi replied, grinning and rubbing his hands together. 

Sebastian put the kettle on and started unpacking his shopping. Kimi leaned casually against the fridge, watching Sebastian as he placed the groceries in the cupboards were they belonged. When the kettle pinged, it was Kimi who walked over and picked it up.

"Okay, where are the cups and the tea bags?" he asked, opening a couple of the cupboards at random.

He found tea bags in the second cupboard, plucking two out of the box and turning to find Sebastian holding two mugs behind him. He dropped a tea bag in each mug and took the cups from Sebastian's hands, lightly brushing their fingers together as he did so. The touch sent tingles up Sebastian's arms and he turned to the fridge, grabbing a milk bottle, to hide his blush.

"Do you take sugar?" Sebastian asked, placing the milk beside the two cups that were now brewing.

Kimi said that he normally took sugar and Sebastian headed over to the other side of the kitchen. He didn't normally use sugar and so it was on the top shelf in a cupboard he barely ever used. He reached up, but was a few inches short of grabbing it. He heard Kimi giggle behind him.

"I don't know why you're laughing, Kimi," Sebastian teased, "You're no taller than me."

Kimi laughed again, flushing slightly as he walked over to Sebastian.

"Here, I'll give you a boost," he said, swiftly grabbing Sebastian around the waist and lifting him up.

Sebastian grabbed the sugar and Kimi slowly lowered him back to the ground, pausing with his hands on Sebastian's middle. 

Sebastian turned around slowly, Kimi's hands remaining in place, sliding around hips, sending shivers up the German's spine and making his heart beat faster. Kimi looked deep into Sebastian's eyes, removing one hand from his waist to take the sugar and place it on the side. He hooked his fingers through the belt loops on Sebastian's jeans and pulled him towards him so their bodies were tight against each other then put his arms back around Sebastian's waist. 

Sebastian gulped, feeling himself become aroused by Kimi's body pressing against his. He slipped his arms around the Finn's waist and into the back pockets of his trousers, groping his ass with a mischievous grin on his face. Kimi's arms gripped Sebastian tighter and lifted him off the ground again. This time Sebastian wrapped his legs around Kimi's hips and moved his arms around his neck. Kimi growled, as he pressed Sebastian harder against the fridge, slipping his hands under Sebastian's shirt ready to remove it.

"Maybe we should forget the tea and you can warm me up, Sebastian?"


	2. Baby It's Cold Outside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mechanic finally gets a chance to come and fix Sebastian's car, but Kimi proves that he's more than just a handsome face with a fantastic sex drive.
> 
> Written from [winterbreakprompts](http://winterbreakprompts.tumblr.com) prompt #26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (i should point out i know nothing about cars/mechanics so sorry if certain parts of this are a bit vague or completely wrong)

Sebastian awoke the next morning the find Kimi sleeping soundly in the bed beside him. They'd spent the night before chatting and getting to know one another between some of the best sex sessions Sebastian had ever had. They'd laid waste on one another on pretty much every solid surface they could find, before eventually collapsing into Sebastian's bed, sweaty and sticky.

Sebastian smiled to himself, watching Kimi sleeping beside him. He lifted his hand and brushed a stray lock of the Finn's blonde hair from out of his face, tucking it behind his ear and stroking his cheek with his thumb.

Kimi didn't wake at Sebastian's touched, so Sebastian rolled over and slipped out from under the duvet, grabbing his dressing gown from the hook on the door, and headed downstairs to get himself a drink. The cups of tea were still abandoned on the sideboard in the kitchen, the milk beginning to curdle in the bottle beside them. He poured the over-brewed tea and gone off milk down the kitchen sink, rinsing the cups and bottle and placing them in the ever growing stack of washing up, before re-filling the kettle and making two coffees.

When he returned to his bedroom, he found Kimi had woken up and was sat up in the bed, his torso above the bed sheets, his right arm resting along the top of the headboard. He smiled, lazily at Sebastian and took a steaming mug of coffee from his hands. Sebastian placed the other cup on his bedside table while he climbed back into the bed. Kimi enveloped him in his arm, pulling him up close, and they sat in silence, sipping coffee as the morning sun shone through the hastily half-closed curtains.

The silence was broken by Sebastian's mobile phone vibrating noisily on the wooden surface of the bedside table. 

"Ignore it, baby" Kimi said, kissing the back of Sebastian's neck as he turned to look at the caller ID, "It's cold outside these covers, let's just keep warm in bed all day."

Sebastian sighed, unhooking himself from Kimi's arm.

"It's the garage, I'd better answer it," he said, placing his mug down and answering the call, "Hello?"

\--

Barely twenty minutes later Sebastian had showered and dressed and was pacing up and down the lounge waiting for the mechanic to arrive. The man on the phone - Christian, he'd called himself in a really sexy English accent - had said he was available to come and check Sebastian's car and he'd be heading over right away.

Kimi was sat on the sofa in just his jeans, watching Sebastian pacing. He couldn't work out what had gotten into the guy.

"Sit down, you're making me dizzy" he said, holding out his hand and catching Sebastian's wrist as he walked past, "You know I could have looked at your car, right?"

Sebastian sat on the sofa next to Kimi, his eyes focused on the street outside the window,

"I'd rather get a professional to look it over, thanks," Sebastian replied, not even looking at the Finn to acknowledge his offer.

"What's to say I'm not a professional?" Kimi asked, his voice filled with mock offence.

"Well, to start with, the way you were driving yesterday," Sebastian said, hoping off the sofa and running to the window at the sound of a van pulling up on the front.

Sebastian watched as the man, climbed out of the van and walked up the driveway. He was quite good looking - nothing on Kimi, but Christian had an English accent and Sebastian was a sucker for that. He rushed to the front door, opening it just as Christian was about to knock. Kimi followed him through into the hallway, wrapping his arms around his bare torso at the cold from outside.

"Sebastian?" Christian asked, holding out his hand.

"Yea," Sebastian giggled, shaking the mans and standing back to let him in, "Fancy a coffee?"

"Yeah, alright. But I'll just have it while I work if you don't mind," Christian replied, heading towards the car, "You got the keys?"

Sebastian grabbed the car keys from the mantle piece and threw them to Christian, turning back to Kimi, who was still topless leaning against the wall halfway down the hallway.

"You can make the coffee can't you, Kimi? You remember where all the stuff is, right?" he asked, hurriedly stuffing his feet into his wellies.

Kimi stared incredulously at Sebastian, whose eyes had not left the Englishman as he pulled his coat on and excitedly followed Christian outside. Sighing, he push himself off the wall with his shoulder and walked into the kitchen, filling the kettle and making three mugs of coffee.

When Kimi stepped back outside, his nipples hardening in the cold, he found Christian bent over the engine of Sebastian's car and Seb stood a few feet behind quite clearly checking out his ass. The German released a happy sigh from his lips, tilting his head from one side to the other.

"Coffee, perv," Kimi said loudly, making Sebastian jump and Christian stand up from examining the car.

"I thought you said it was cold outside," Sebastian said, taking two mugs from Kimi's hands, and glancing down at the Finn's chest, biting his lip.

Kimi looked to Christian again and smirked as he looked the Englishman up and down. Running his fingers through his long blonde hair, he looked deep into Sebastian's eyes as he walked backwards to lean against the brick wall that ran down the opposite edge of Sebastian's driveway. He was happy to see that Sebastian flushed, averting his eyes from Kimi's and began examine his cup of coffee.

Christian took one of the mugs from Sebastian's hand and crossed his arms over his chest. From the distance Kimi was stood, he could just make out what Christian saying and he had to say, it was a load of bollocks. From what Christian was saying Sebastian would need to spend a fortune on parts and labour for a new engine. Kimi was fairly certain the problem was the carburetor - he'd seen it plenty of times before.

Whilst Christian was explaining all the crap that _didn't_ need doing to Sebastian's car, Kimi walked over and fiddle with a few springs and cables, cleaning them as he did so. Once he was happy that they were adjusted properly, he stepped back and closed the car's hood, causing the other two men to jump. He instinctively wiped his has down his front, forgetting that he had no top on, and smeared dirt and oil down his abs.

Sebastian glanced at the oil streaks that made Kimi's toned muscles seem even more defined. 

"Try starting it now, Seb," the Finn said, folding his arms across his chest and tucking his hands under his armpits. 

He glared at Christian, daring him to say something to stop Sebastian. The German walked to the drivers side of the car, slotting the key into the ignition switch and turning it. The engine roared and the car idled. The three men stood in silence for a few moments to make sure it didn't stop, Sebastian revving a couple of times just to make sure.

He turned off the ignition and climbed out of the car, grinning at Kimi,

"What did you do?" he asked excitedly, ignoring Christian who was quietly gathering his tools back into his bag, "How did you fix it so easily?"

Seeing Kimi topless and covered in oil made Sebastian tingle all over. Had he really been eyeing up the cheat of a mechanic while he had _that_ waiting for him? He moved toward Kimi, thinking about how much he wanted to touch him, to completely cover him in a oil and fuck him right there on the car's hood. 

Kimi shrugged, walking back towards Sebastian's front door, emptying his coffee mug into the flower bed.

"Lets just say, _I'm_ a professional," he replied, with one last glance at the Englishman, and disappeared into the house with a triumphant grin on his face.

Feeling himself becoming a little too aroused for the public eye, Sebastian snapped back out of his daydream. He turned back to the English man who was zipping up his tool bag, looking slightly sheepish.

"I guess I won't be needing your new engine, then" Sebastian said coldly, "I hope you have plenty of other clients to con today."

And with that he stormed into the house trying to look angry instead of embarrassed by how easily he'd been fooled by a sexy English accent and a nice ass.

When he had closed and locked the front door behind him, watching through the keyhole to check that Christian had actually left, Sebastian noticed that he could hear the shower running. Guessing exactly what Kimi was doing he headed up the stairs, a small smile playing on his lips. 

Since he lived alone, he'd never bothered with a lock on the bathroom door so he slipped quietly through the door and removed his own clothing. He silently pulled the shower curtain back, watching Kimi lather shampoo in his blonde locks, before stepping into the stream of warm water and grabbing Kimi around the waist. The Finn jumped, but seemed happy enough to let Sebastian run his fingers along his hip bone and down towards his cock.

"Are you sure you don't want to get a little dirtier first," Sebastian whispered into his ear.


	3. You Don't Feel The Cold When You're Happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an exhausting session in the shower Kimi is ready for food, but discovers something a little more exciting in Sebastian's back garden. The place might be covered in snow but that doesn't stop the pair producing a little more heat.
> 
> Written for [winterbreakprompts](http://winterbreakprompts.tumblr.com) prompt #28
> 
> (kinda vaguely fits, I think)

Both men slid to the floor of the shower, grinning at one another and panting heavily. There wasn't a lot of space, but their legs entwined as they both leaned against the pleasantly cool wall and caught their breaths.

The last of the shower water swirled down the plug and Kimi turned to look at Sebastian. The German had his eyes closed, his head leant backwards against the wall. His chest was slowly rising and falling as he breathed, his arms hanging limply by his side. Kimi ran his fingers up one of Sebastian's arms, bringing a small smile onto the mans lips, though his eyes remained closed.

"Well I've sure worked up an appetite, Sebastian," Kimi said, "How about we make use of some of the groceries you bought yesterday?"

He placed his feet against the walls either side of Sebastian and pushed himself up the wall using the power in his calves and thighs. The German finally opened his eyes, admiring Kimi's muscles as he stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel from the rail. He was a little disappointed when the blonde wrapped the towel around his waist after drying his hair with it, covering his ass as he headed out the bathroom.

Sebastian slowly got to his feet and stepped out of the shower. He instinctively reached for the towel before realising that Kimi had just taken it. That was another chore Sebastian had been meaning to get around too - washing his clothes and towels. Deciding that, since he had devoured his whole body on several occasions now, Kimi probably wouldn't mind, Sebastian headed down the stairs into the kitchen, completely naked.

In the kitchen, he found Kimi looking out of the window into Sebastian's back garden.

"You didn't tell me you had a hot tub," he said, hearing Sebastian's footsteps on the floor behind him.

Sebastian walked up right behind Kimi, sliding his hands down the front of the towel and pushing him against the sideboard.

"I. Have. A. Hot. Tub," Sebastian said, planting kisses up the back of Kimi's neck between each word, his hand slowly creeping further down the towel.

Kimi spun around quickly, catching Sebastian off guard and almost knocking him over. He deftly caught him around the waist and lifted him, spinning again so the Sebastian ended up sat on the sideboard, his bare ass getting covered in crumbs. Kimi bent down and licked his tongue up the inside of Sebastian's thigh.

"How about we make it hotter?" he said, wrapping Sebastian's legs around him and standing up.

After fumbling with keys and struggling to pull a snow-topped cover off the hot tub with his host in his arms, Kimi finally ditched his towel and climbed down the stairs into the warm water, lowering himself into a seated position with Sebastian on his lap. Sebastian moved onto his knees, leaning forward on Kimi's chest to put his mouth against the Finn's, kissing him roughly, biting his lip and tangling their tongues.

Kimi had his arms rested on the side of the tub and he slowly slid his hands through the snow, collecting it into two balls, before sprinkling it down Sebastian's back. The German squealed, arching his back, thrusting his crotch hard against Kimi's.

"You fucking shit," he said, grabbing a handful of snow in retaliation, and rubbing it through Kimi's hair and down his chest.

The Finn grinned at him.

"You'll have to do better than that," he said, standing up with Sebastian in his arms. 

He walked slowly to the stairs of the tub, the steam of the heat swirling around them. The grin on his face as he looked at Sebastian made the german nervous.

"Kimi, what are you doing," he laughed nervously.

"I'm going to show you the true heat of passion," Kimi growled, stepping onto the snowy grass of Sebastian's back garden with bare feet.

He walked to the middle of the garden, not taking his eyes from Sebastian's, and slowly knelt in the snow. He leaned forward, Sebastian wrapping his legs tighter around Kimi's torso trying to avoid the snow. His efforts were futile, as Kimi slid his legs outwards and with a high pitched cry, Sebastian found himself lying on the snow with the Finn on top of him.

Kimi nuzzled Sebastian's neck, kissing him all over, licking lines with the end of his tongue right down to his hard nipples. From there he sucked at random parts of his torso right down to his hips, where he ran his nose across Sebastian's skin down to his crotch. His tongue slid down Sebastian's stiff length, and he heard the German whimper as he took him fully in his mouth.

It was an odd sensation to Sebastian. He felt cold all over, yet he was sweating at the same time. They rolled about in the snow, exploring each others bodies with tongues and fingers, not caring if Sebastian's neighbours looked out and saw them. They fucked in the garden until they were both exhausted and lying in a patch of mud, the snow melted in the heat of passion.

Sebastian lay in Kimi's arms for a several moments, hoping that it would never end. He didn't know if Kimi was going to be his 'forever', but he knew that he didn't want him to get away. He'd give up everything to spend the rest of time exploring the Finn's body, tasting his mouth, his skin, his cum.

From inside the house, they heard the tinny tones of a mobile phone ringing. Sebastian sighed, the moment ruined again by a mobile phone. It was Kimi's this time though.

"Fuck," the Finn said, jumping to his feet, Sebastian's head dropping into the mud, "Shit. Fuck."

Kimi ran into the house and Sebastian grabbed the towel from the edge of the hot tub, wrapping it around himself. He discretely checked the neighbours windows to see if anybody was looking before he followed Kimi back into the house.

"I'm sorry, shit I'm so sorry, I'll be there in half an hour," Kimi was saying, the voice on the other end of the phone screaming back at him, "I'll be there, I promise.'

Kimi ended the call and turned back to Sebastian.

"I have to go. I'm in serious shit, I was supposed to be at a meeting 3 hours ago. Can I use your shower again?" he said, stress breaking his voice.

Sebastian slowly unwrapped the towel from his body and handed it to Kimi, nodding sadly. He sat on a chair at the kitchen table, while Kimi showered and dressed in the clothes he had worn yesterday. 

When Kimi returned to the kitchen he was tidying his hair distractedly, pushing it behind his ears with his fingers as it dropped forward again with each step he took.

"Look, I'm sorry Sebastian. I'm shit at goodbyes so I'm just gonna go," he said, bluntly, "I had fun. I... I'll see you around."

Sebastian didn't look up as the Finn walked down the hallway and let himself out of the door. He couldn't believe that just minutes ago he'd been laid in the garden, naked, legs wrapped around Kimi, wondering if maybe he'd found the 'one'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> firstly, i'm so sorry. there is more to come.
> 
> secondly, i'm even more sorry for how potentially awful this might have been. as i've said in notes before this is the first fic i've actually written anything sexual, so i'm still getting to grips with that (if you pardon the expression).


	4. The Modelling Photo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian spent a few days wallowing in self pity over losing Kimi so easily. Luckily a good friend returns to town after the winter holiday and he had outs for coffee and a bit of retail therapy, but the last thing he expects is to find a familiar face staring back at him from a store window.
> 
> Written for [winterbreakprompts](http://winterbreakprompts.tumblr.com) prompt #30.

Sebastian passed the next couple of days wondering if Kimi would turn up at his door again. He spent long hours sat at his kitchen table with paper and pencil, drawings of the Finn scattering across the table. Some were simple portraits depicting his deep eyes, others were full body shots - naked, clothed, posed, whatever took Sebastian’s fancy. Although they'd spent such a short time together, Sebastian could create a perfect picture of Kimi in his mind. He knew at some point he'd have to leave the house, but for now he wanted to continue wallowing in self pity.

Sebastian had been so tied up in the wonder of Kimi's body, devouring it all and revelling in the times the Finn's mouth explored his own, that he hadn't even asked for his number. He had no way to contact the guy, probably no way of seeing him again beyond his artistic skills. Even if they _had_ swapped numbers, Sebastian wasn't sure he'd dare to text Kimi. What if he'd just wanted a quick - well, almost twenty-four hour - play around and then off to the next guy that he found. 

He twiddled his pencil between his fingers, staring at the blank page before him wondering what to draw next, as his mobile phone buzzed. He jumped, knocking paper across the table as hastily reached for his phone. He didn't even look at the number, swiping to answer as soon as he picked it up.

"Hello," he almost shouted

"Hey Sebby! How's it going?"

It was Britta. Of course it was Britta. Sebastian silently cursed himself for hoping it would be Kimi. Term started in a couple of days and Britta must be back in town. Britta was his best friend at college. They were both going into their second year of an Arts course and no doubt she'd be wanting to catch up on what she'd missed while visiting her parents.

"Seb? Hello?" she said, sounding as though she was shaking the phone, “Are you there?”

"I'm here, hey. What's up Britta?" Sebastian said, trying to brighten his voice.

"Well, I'm back for term. Wanna go for a coffee?" she asked, sounding as though she was surprised Sebastian even had to ask.

"Err... Yea, okay," Sebastian replied, unable to think of an excuse not to.

"Great, see you at _Katerina's_ in half an hour," she said, hanging up before Sebastian could request more time.

He dropped his phone on top of the drawings, slowly sliding his chair back from the table and wrapping his dressing gown around himself. He headed up towards the bathroom, desperately needing to shower and shave before he went out in public.

\--

Sebastian arrived at the coffee shop half an hour late. He knew Britta would have been on time, and he also knew that she'd expect him to be late, so as he walked through the door he wasn't surprised to find the barista serving two piping hot coffees to their usual corner table. He forced a grin onto his face and headed over to join his friend. 

As he approached the table, Britta got to her feet, opening her arms to wrap him in a hug. She stepped back, hands on his shoulders, holding him at arms length.

"Well at least you _tried_ to look happy to see me," she said, raising an eyebrow, "Sit. Spill."

Sebastian dropped into the seat opposite her, removing his coat and scarf before warming his hands on the mug in front of him. He stared at the liquid inside the cup of some time before he finally spoke.

"Its..." he started.

"A boy, I knew it," Britta interrupted, "How did you scare him off this time?"

"I didn't scare him off!" Sebastian hissed, trying not to shout, "He just... left and we didn't really get a chance to exchange numbers."

"Does he have a name, or were you too busy to exchange those too?" Britta asked, sipping her coffee as she examined Sebastian's face.

"He was called Kimi. He was from Finland," Sebastian sighed, his mind flickering back to the moment he’d first set eyes on the handsome blonde man, "He gave me a lift home when the snow was really bad a few weeks back and..."

"You sucked his dick in return," Britta finished his sentence, placing her mug down and grasping Sebastian's hands between her fingers, "Babe, you need to stop getting so attached over one night stands. Look college starts back soon, we'll hit some of the freshers parties and you can find a new toy."

Britta rubbed her thumb across Sebastian's knuckles, smiling kindly in a hope that Sebastian would cheer up. He attempted to smile back, but he knew that his eyes would give away how much he was hurting. He looked back down at his mug, swirling the spoon around in the coffee and watching the whirlpool it created.

"He was just so beautiful Britta," he whimpered, "Perfect blonde hair that smelt like raspberry shampoo. These icy-green eyes that pierced right into your soul and oh my gosh, i just want him to come back here and ravish me again."

Britta almost choked on her coffee.

"Jesus, Seb," she laughed, "Fucking hell."

Sebastian was in full flow now though.

"He stayed the night. And then the next morning we had a session in the shower, and _then_ \- oh my GOD, Britta it was amazing," he leaned forward, dropping his voice to a whisper, "We did it in the garden. In the snow. I swear it was the best sex I've ever had and _how am I supposed to live without that again_?"

"The gar... Seriously?" Britta started, wondering what had come over Sebastian, "So... why did he leave, if he was that... Why the fuck were you in the garden?"

"Well, we went in the hot tub..." Sebastian started.

"Okay, okay," Britta waved her hands in front of his face, "Enough. I can see where that's going. So why did he leave?"

Sebastian slumped his shoulders, picking up his coffee and taking a few gulps to wash down the lump that was forming in his throat.

"I don't know. He got this call, and he got really stressed out and just rushed off," Sebastian said, "He said he didn't like 'goodbyes' and left."

"Bummer," Britta said, "And just nothing since?"

"Nothing," Sebastian said, "Except a whole pile of drawings."

"Which I'm _really_ hoping you're not going to turn into 'Wanted' posters," Britta replied, quickly. 

She really wouldn't put it past Sebastian to do that. She'd never seen him so beaten up over a guy before. She knew he always jumped in too deep, but he normally bounced back pretty quickly. 

"Look, how about we go and do some retail therapy," she suggested, ruffling Sebastian's hair, "I heard there's a new _Wrangler_ opened up, I need to get some Winter gear if this snow is gonna hang around."

She pushed her chair back, deftly sliding her coat up her arms before grabbing Sebastian's scarf and tying it around his neck for him. He slowly got to his feet, pulling his coat on and zipping it up to his chin.

"Come up, Pup," she said, grabbing his hand and leading him out of the coffee shop, "I'll buy you a new sketch book for your Kimi angst, if you try and put on a brave face."

He lifted the corner of his mouth in a forced half grin and followed Britta out of the shop in silence. Britta linked her arm through his as they walked down the street and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Seriously, Sebby," she said, "Please tell me what I can do to cheer you up, I need the sarcastic little shit I left here before Christmas to come back."

Sebastian wrapped his arm around Britta and rubbed her shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said, "Look, like you said, it's freshers next week. There's bound to be _one_ cute guy, right."

He grinned at Britta, hoping it was more convincing this time and she hugged his arm as she smiled back. Sebastian was glad she was back, at least he had someone to try and take his mind off Kimi now, and soon his college work would be piling up and his mind would be completely taken up.

"Hey look, the new _Wrangler_ store," Britta said, breaking Sebastian’s thoughts as she pointed towards a store with huge windows filling it's front.

They wandered over towards the shop, Britta loosening her grip on Sebastian's arm ready to open the door. 

Just as they were about to enter, one of the photos of the models in the window caught Sebastian's eye. He double-took, grabbing Britta's arm, pulling her to a stop.

"Shit, Britta," he pointed, mouth open, eyes glittering mischievously, "That's Kimi!"


	5. Pretending Not To Be So Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian really wants to go out and enjoy the Welcome Back party at the student union, despite the fact he thinks he's got the flu. Hiding how ill he is from his friends, he tries to enjoy himself, but when the flu gets the better of him, it doesn't necessarily turn out to be a bad thing.
> 
> Based on lightsoutprompts prompt #31.

After the shock of finding Kimi plastered on the window of the new _Wrangler_ store, Sebastian and Britta had gone inside and inquired with one of the staff members as to whether they knew his whereabouts. Unfortunately all the staff knew was that he was a regular model for the company - they hadn't even known he was called Kimi until Sebastian had told them. He'd left the store feeling disappointed, but Sebastian had made sure to purchase the hoody that Kimi was wearing in the photo, just as a memento, obviously.

Back home, with Britta headed off to her own apartment, Sebastian settled into his new hoody and sat down at his kitchen table to draw the image of Kimi from the modelling shot. He drew careful strokes, making sure he got the facial expression and the proportion of features just right. He drew with his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth, concentrating so hard he didn't notice the hours sliding by.

When he was finally happy with the finish drawing, he squiggled he signature and date in the bottom right hand corner of the paper and stood up to stretch. His joints popped and he released a long yawn, noticing how late it was when his eyes caught the clock. Grabbing a couple of biscuits and a glass of water he headed upstairs and climbed into bed, his mind still swimming with thoughts of Kimi.

\---

As the following evening fast approached, Sebastian began to feel severely tired. His temperature would soar and then suddenly drop, leaving him shivering in blankets soaked with his own sweat. He lay on the sofa in his lounge, his eyes closed and the lights off, groaning feebly to himself. He must've caught a cold after the afternoon of pure pleasure in the snow - as long as that was all he'd caught, he thought to himself. In a couple of hours Britta would arrive to go to the college Welcome Back party and he _really_ wanted to go and take his mind off Kimi.

He opened his eyes, bracing himself for the pain of the light, and forced himself to stand, unsteady on his feet. He walked up the staircase, gripping onto the banister for support, and stumbled into the shower, turning the water on hot and sitting under the flow for a few moments to get his breath back. He showered slowly and carefully, his muscles straining with every move.

He felt a little more refreshed after the shower and dressed himself in a plaid shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, carrying his favourite pair of boots down the stairs and dropping them by the door. He went to the fridge and poured himself a glass of red wine, sipping on it as he waited for Britta to arrive. If anything would make him feel better, he told himself, it was a bottle of fine red.

 

Britta rang the doorbell with precision timing. Sebastian poured another glass of wine and opened the door with it held out for her.

"Sebastian you look awful, are you alright?" she said, stepping in the house and taking the glass from Sebastian's hand.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he replied, waving his hands as it to waft the conversation away, "Drink up, we don't want to be late!"

Britta raised an eyebrow, clearly not convinced that Sebastian was OK, but she didn't question it further. She knew that Sebastian would still be pining over Kimi and the best way for him to get over that was to get drunk and flirt with the freshers.

After quickly working their way through a bottle of wine, they donned their coats and head out to the Student Union, huddling together for warmth as they joined the long entrance queue.

"Don't cuddle too close, Seb," Britta said, stepping back slightly, "I don't want to catch whatever you've got!"

"I'm Fine!" Sebastian said, forcing himself to try and believe it as he grabbed Britta around the waist and pulled her in to keep him warm.

If truth be told, Sebastian was still going through hot sweats and cold shivers. He'd put a V neck jumper on to cover the fact he was sweating through his shirt and he just hoped that once they were in the venue the fact he smelled sweaty would be covered by mass of people.

"Sebastian," a voice shouted through the crowd, "So great to see you honey!"

A familiar blonde face broke through the queue ahead of them, arms outstretched, pushing Britta out of the way and grabbing Sebastian in a hug.

"Heikki," Sebastian replied, trying to not fall over while he leaned into his friend.

Heikki was the campest guy on campus. A graphics student that Sebastian had fooled around with a lot in his first year, they were close friends and neither of them expected any more than just the odd drunken fumble under the bed sheets.

"So great to be back, isn't it," Heikki said, grabbing Sebastian's hand, "Christmas at home is so boring! Hey, come on, I have VIP, I'll get you in."

Sebastian just had time to grab Britta's arm before Heikki pulled him away into the club.

Inside, they headed straight for the bar. They each bought two sambucca shots and down them, before buying drinks that they could sit with at a table.

"Soooo," Heikki said, once they were seated, "What's the gossip, hot stuff?"

Heikki loved gossip. He wanted to know everything that was going on in everybody's lives.

"Sebby fucked a model," Britta blurted, grinning behind her hands, "In his back garden."

"No way," Heikki gasped, grinning at Sebastian as he leaned back in over exaggerated shock.

"In the snow!" Britta finished.

"You sly, sly, dog!" Heikki squealed, punching Sebastian on the shoulder.

It took all of the energy Sebastian could muster to reply.

"Yea and then left and didn't even leave his number."

Sebastian dropped his head forward onto his chest, unable to hold it up much longer.

"Seb are you okay?" Britta asked, a concerned look on her face, "I really think you should go home, you look awful!"

"I'm fine!" Sebastian said, hoping he sounded bright and confident, "Lets go dance!"

He forced himself to his feet, grabbing Heikki and Britta by the hand and dragging them behind him. 

The dance floor was crowded, so Sebastian didn't have to worry about his muscles holding him up, the bodies around him were supporting him. He walked to the middle of the floor, bumping into everybody he passed, apologising time and again.

When they reached the center of the floor Sebastian turned around, pulling Heikki into him and lifting his arms around his neck as they danced. Britta was still sucking her drink through the straw, swinging her hips, awkwardly stood beside them. Sebastian quickly began sweating again, but he convinced himself it was because of the amount of people on the dance floor. He grinded against Heikki, forcing himself to jump in time with the music every now and then, Heikki spinning around, still clinging to Sebastian's hand which was above their heads.

But suddenly Sebastian was spinning. His head vision was a blur and his head pounded, the bass of the music trying to break into his skull. He tried to breath, to pull air into his lungs to clear his head, but his breath caught and he started to choke.

Then everything went black.

What seemed like a few moments later, Sebastian could feel himself coming back around. There was voices nearby, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. It was as though his eyes were glazed over and his ears were full of cotton wall. The sound of the music was distant, but the bass still felt like it was rattling his brain around his skull.

Something cold and wet was splashed across his face and his mind seemed to spring back to life. His head ached and his muscles throbbed with exhaustion.

"Sebastian? Are you okay?" a voice said. Sebastian couldn't figure out who it was and his vision was still spinning slightly.

He groaned in reply, unable to form words.

"Sebby, I wish you had told me you were this ill."

That was definitely Britta. Sebastian held out his hand to her, but the warm fingers that linked between his were too large to be Britta's. He closed his eyes again, leaning his head against the wall as someone splashed cold water in his face again and slapped his cheek lightly.

"Sebastian, keep your eyes open mate. Don't go to sleep."

He recognised the voice this time. How could he forget that accent? His eyes sprung open in shock, his head springing forwards off the wall. He was in the SU toilets and the man who had spoken was knelt before him, one hand still grasping Sebastian's. Sebastian's eyes flicked behind the man to Britta who had a huge grin on her face as she drunkenly pointed, holding herself up on a basin. He looked back at the man, unable to wipe the shocked look from his face.

"Kimi?", he croaked, "What are you doing here?"


	6. The Model & The Artist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi and Britta take Sebastian home and spend the night at his house to make sure he's okay. Kimi makes tea for Britta and himself and discovers some interesting pieces of paper on the kitchen table.
> 
> inspired by one of [this](http://lightsoutprompts.tumblr.com/post/112301606255/art-school-au-prompts#notes) prompt set.

"Where's Heikki?" Sebastian asked, still sprawled on the floor of the toilets.

Kimi kept lifting his hand to the cold water running into a basin, and flicking the water in Sebastian's face.

"He disappeared after you passed out on him," Britta said, "Kimi came out of nowhere, flung you over his shoulder and bought you in here!"

She grinned again, sticking the straw of her drink back into her mouth to stop herself from giggling out loud.

Sebastian pushed himself up to sit cross legged on the floor. He felt a lot a better now. Kimi passed him a glass of water and he drink it greedily.

"You should drink it all," Kimi said, "And then we'll take you home."

Britta giggled out loud at the words, trying to turn it into a cough when Kimi looked round to see what was so funny.

"What happened?" Sebastian ask looking between the pair who stood before him.

"I was watching from the balcony," Kimi explained, "I saw you dancing with... whoever that idiot was, and then you passed out. I carried you in here to get you some air and some cold water."

"The idiot was Heikki," Sebastian explained, "He's my friend."

"He is an idiot, though," Britta confirmed, dropping to the floor next to Sebastian, "Unlike you, Kimi."

She battered her eyelashes at him and Sebastian tried to punch her on the arm. Kimi raised an eyebrow, apparently not amused. The attempted punch had taken a lot of Sebastian's energy and he really just wanted to go to bed.

"Can we go home now?" he asked, finally ready to give in to the sickness.

Kimi helped Sebastian to his feet, grabbing him around the waist and helping him out of the union. Britta followed, gripping onto Sebastian's arm, more to stop herself from falling than to aid him, and they bundled into a taxi. Sebastian promptly feel asleep on Kimi's shoulder his hand gripped tightly in the Finn's resting on his lap. 

The taxi pulled up at Sesbastian's house, and Britta paid the fare before fumbling in his coat pocket for the house keys. Kimi carried Sebastian into the house and up to his room, not wanting to wake him. He laid him down on the bed while Britta went to get him a glass of water and see what cold and flu medicines he had. 

Sebastian awoke as Kimi was pulling off his boots and socks. He smiled to himself, half delirious, as the Finn continued to remove the rest of his clothing.

"Ooh are you playing Doctor?" Sebastian asked, his voice a mixture of excitement and drowsiness, "Are you gonna fuck me like you did in the garden, again?" 

"No, Sebastian," Kimi said, "I'm getting you ready for bed. For sleep."

Sebastian slumped forwards, his chin landing heavily on Kimi's shoulder as he tried to remove his shirt. He put his arms around the model, nuzzling his neck, kissing him sleepily. He moved his face so that his lips met with Kimi's, but the Finn pulled away.

"Sebastian, stop," Kimi said, giving up trying to unbutton his shirt and pushing him gently back onto the bed, "I don't want to get ill!"

Sebastian's arms were still around the Finn's neck, and Kimi was pulled on to the bed. Sebastian tried to wrap his legs around the Finn's waist, but Kimi removed himself from the grip easily. Sebastian was still half dressed, his shirt partly unbuttoned. He lay, pale, sweaty and panting on the bed, looking at Kimi with eyes full of sickness.

"I'm going to go and get Britta to change you," Kimi said, leaving the room quickly.

He headed down the stairs and found Britta rummaging through a cupboard in the kitchen. There were tins of vegetables scattered around her.

"Errr, Britta?" Kimi said, hoping that the question asked itself.

"I'm _sure_ there was medicine in here last time," she said, removing a packet of pasta, which fell over and spilled it contents about the floor.

Kimi quickly grabbed her under the armpits and stood her up, spinning her around to look at him.

"Can you go and help Sebastian get ready for bed," he said, hoping that she wasn't too drunk to understand his instructions, "He keeps trying to get me to screw him, but he needs rest. And I don't wanna catch flu!"

Britta snorted a laugh, nodding and headed upstairs, bumping into the wall a few times on the way.

Kimi quickly replaced the tins back into the cupboard and picked up the pasta that had spilled. He resealed the remainder of the packet and put it back in the cupboard too. Then he moved to other side of the kitchen and flicked the kettle on - he really needed a cup of tea.

He pulled a chair out from under the kitchen table and sat on it waiting for the kettle to boil. The table was clear except for a pile of paper, the top one filled with a pencil drawing. Kimi picked the pile up and pulled them towards him. From the right angle, he was shocked to find that it was a drawing of himself. It was a perfect pencil copy of one of the shots from his _Wrangler_ shoot, signed and dated by Sebastian. 

He flicked through the other sheets of paper, realising quickly that most of them were drawings of him. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of Sebastian having a selection of drawings of him naked on his kitchen table, but he was impressed by how talented he was at drawing. The were so detailed, despite the fact Kimi hadn't been there to model for them.

He placed the drawings back on the table just as Britta walked in again.

"He aslee..." her voice trailed off as she noticed the drawings that he'd just put down. She suddenly felt very sober.

The kettle pinged in the silence that followed and Kimi quickly stood up to make two cups of hot tea. Britta hurried to the table, tidying the stack of paper and moving them onto a sideboard, hoping to avoid any awkward questions.

She picked up her mug of tea and walked into Sebastian's lounge. Kimi followed her.

"He's asleep," she tried again, "I think he has flu, his temperatures really high. It's no surprise really."

The last sentence came out of her mouth before she had time to stop it.

"Why's that," Kimi asked, his face a mask of innocence.

Britta's brain raced, trying to think of a suitable excuse.

"Well, you know," she said, finding herself more time, "He... Doesn't own many winter jumpers."

It came out as more of a question, but Kimi seemed to take it as a suitable answer and he settled back into the sofa, drinking his tea.

\---

Before they knew it, the sun had risen and was shining through the open curtains of the lounge. Both Britta and Kimi had fallen asleep on Sebastian's sofa, and Kimi awoke to find Britta's foot in his face. He pushed it gently out of the way and stood up, stretching and yawning.

Just as he was about to head into the kitchen to find something for breakfast, Sebastian shuffled through the door. He had his duvet gripped tightly under his chin, wrapped around his body and over his head. He was deathly pale and walked passed Kimi into a chair without speaking.

"Tea?" Kimi asked.

Sebastian nodded and closed his eyes, curling his legs up beneath him to get comfy.

Kimi went back out into the kitchen and made tea. On his way back, the drawings, which were hanging precariously off the sideboard, caught his eye. He picked the top one from pile and took it with him. Placing the tea next to Sebastian, he tapped him lightly where he thought his shoulder was.

Sebastian sat up, smiling his thanks to Kimi, who held up a piece of paper. Sebastian's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh fuck," he croaked, "I can explain... I'm an art student."

"Who likes to draw his fuck buddies?" Kimi said, bluntly.

"W... N... Well, no," Sebastian tried, struggling to explain.

Kimi laughed, tucking his arms under Sebastian's duvet and shuffling him up the seat so he could sit beside him. He put his arms around Sebastian and the duvet and cuddled up, jiffling until he was comfy. He looked at the drawing again.

"It's fine, Seb," he said, "You're an amazing artist."

He stroked his finger across the drawing of himself, looking across at Sebastian and smiling.

"Can I keep it?" he asked.

Sebastian nodded, thankful that Kimi wasn't angry about discovering a pile of drawings of his naked body lying around.

"Well, I'm an artist and you're a model," he said, his voice breaking from the effort to talk, "Maybe we should hook up more often to keep my creative juices running."

Kimi smiled again, pulling the duvet back from Sebastian's head so he could stroke his hair.

"Maybe you should concentrate on getting better first. I will always be this handsome and you will always be an amazing artist," he said, planting a light kiss on Sebastian's forehead.

Sebastian laughed as he closed his eyes again and leaned into Kimi's embrace.

"How come you were at the union last night?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm a student," Kimi explained, "Third year engineering. Direct entry."

"But you're a model?" Sebastian replied, trying to keep himself awake in the warmth of the duvet and comfort of Kimi's arms.

"Only become I'm so dashingly handsome and I needed some way to pay my student fees," Kimi laughed, glancing at Sebastian and noticing that he'd fallen asleep.


	7. The Accidentally Deliberate Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is feeling much better by the time term starts and upon getting back to college, he decides he wants to find out where the engineering department is so he can seek out Kimi.

By the end of the week, Sebastian was feeling much better. Britta had been popping in and out of the house to make sure he was eating and taking his medicine and he was soon back on his feet. He was slightly disappointed to have missed the week of partying that led up to the beginning of term, but at least now he had Kimi's number in his phone - just in case he needed anything while he was ill, obviously.

When term finally began, Britta and Sebastian headed into college for a meeting with their tutor. Later in the year there was an art exhibition and Britta, ever the most organised person in the year, had roped Sebastian in to help her arrange everything. Their tutor wanted to meet to discuss the plans so far and so they found themselves on campus an hour earlier than they normally would be.

"I wonder where the engineering department is," Sebastian mused aloud, "Do you know where it is Britta?"

"Yea," she laughed in reply, "I wonder why you're so interested in know where it is all of a sudden."

Sebastian nudged her lightly with his shoulder. Britta had admitted to Sebastian that she could see why he thought he was handsome. She'd fully approved of his crush on the engineer who just _happened_ to be hot enough to model for money to pay his tuition fees.

"We have a free period after Art History," Sebastian said, looking at his phone for the timetable, "You can show me where it is then!"

He grinned at Britta as she laughed at him, shaking her head. It wouldn't be a completely bad thing if they bumped into him.

The meeting with their tutor went quickly and they bought coffee from the shop in the student union before heading to their first lecture. Sebastian spent the entire lecture day-dreaming about bumping into Kimi and afterwards he had to ask Britta if she could lend him her notes to copy up.

"So will you show me the engineering department then," Sebastian asked, eagerly.

Britta linked her arm through Sebastian's and guided him in the direction of the correct building.

"Oh hey guys!" Heikki appeared out of nowhere, "What are you guys doing over here?"

"Nothing!" Sebastian replied quickly.

"Stalking people," Britta chipped in.

"Oooh, not me I hope," Heikki said, giggling as he slapped Sebastian playfully on the arm.

Sebastian was eager to continue walking.

"Look Heikki, we're in a rush. Either come with us or bugger off," he said, heading towards the entrance door of the engineering department.

Heikki looked excited, linking his arm through Britta's as they followed Sebastian into the building. Sebastian could hear them whispering behind him, probably gossiping about their stalkee.

Sebastian had barely walked ten feet into the building before Kimi appeared, walking out of an office on the main corridor. Sebastian spun around trying to get back to the main entrance door and out of the building before Kimi saw him, but Heikki caught sight of Kimi.

"Oh my. Well isn't _he_ a handsome specimen," he said, waving his arms around as he walked towards Kimi, "I'm Heikki, nice to meet you."

He giggled as Kimi shook his hand with a confused look on his face.

"Errr, I'm Kimi..." he said, unsure as to why this stranger was hitting on him.

"You're Kimi!" Heikki squealed excitedly, "Oh Sebastian. You've done good."

Heikki turned around to Sebastian who was trying to edge quietly out of the door.

"Hey! Sebastian," Kimi said, walking over to the German, "Feeling better then? What are you doing here? Oh my God, you'll _never_ guess who my tutor is..."

Since Kimi had asked a lot of questions, Sebastian decided to ignore the first two.

"I have no idea, who?" he asked, slightly worried it would be some legendary engineer he'd never heard of.

Kimi barked a laugh.

"Only that numpty Christian who tried to fob you off with your car last week," Kimi laughed again, "Little bit worried I'm not going to learn anything useful."

Sebastian forced a laugh, remembering Christian's English accent and wondering why he'd never bothered to visit the engineering department before. Kimi interrupted his thoughts.

"Anyway, I'm free now," he said, "What are you guys doing? Fancy going shopping. I hear you could do with some jumpers, Sebastian. Stop you catching any more colds!"

Kimi winked at him as the exited the engineering building, Heikki and Britta following behind them.

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't the lack of warm clothes that caused him the cold," Britta whispered loudly to Heikki.

Heikki giggled shrilly, looking Kimi up and down from behind.

"Hey, Kimi," he said, skipping to catch up with him and walk beside him, "You know, I'm studying photography if you ever want to model for me."

He winked at the Finn as Sebastian raised his eyebrows. Heikki's shots were always weirdly kinky, and whilst Kimi might enjoy sex, he doubted that he would want to be photographed in some of _those_ type of poses. Kimi quickly changed the subject.

"So, shall we take my car?" he asked, making a point of looking at Sebastian and Britta and deliberately ignoring Heikki.

"Oooh, sounds fun!" Heikki replied, obliviously.

Britta moved between Sebastian and Kimi.

"You'll never get rid of him now," she whispered into Kimi's ear, causing Sebastian to giggle.

Kimi pointed out his car and the group got in, Sebastian ignoring Heikki's call of shot gun and climbing into the front seat. Britta fastened her seat belt and turned to look out of the window, rolling her eyes at Heikki's theatrical complaints. Kimi drove out of the college car park and onto the main road before speaking again.

"So Seb," he said, turning to look at the German beside him, "If you're a student, how come you have your own house? With a hot tub, might I add."

"Oh, my parents," Sebastian replied, "They used to live there. They moved out before I was born, but kept it for me to move into. Just rented it out until I was old enough."

"Wow!" Kimi exclaimed, turning back to the road, "Your parents must be rich to have two houses!"

"Mmmm," Sebastian hummed, not really liking to talk about his families wealth.

"They own Vetteri Motors," Heikki butted in, earning him a glare from Sebastian, "They're loaded!"

"Seriously?" Kimi said, impressed, "That's awesome. I heard the guy who started that company started building cars in his garage, before he eventually got a shop and now it's like a full on enterprise?"

"Yea," Sebastian said, suddenly interested in the view outside the window, "That was my Dad."

"That is _so_ awesome!" Kimi repeated himself, "Hey! There's this competition between local colleges for building race cars. Christian was telling me about it earlier, he wants us to enter. Maybe your Dad could sponsor us and give us some help?"

"Maybe," Sebastian said, knowing his Dad would only use the idea to annoy him more about choosing art over engineering.

"Hey!" Kimi said, twisting excitedly in his chair, "You could design the cars livery too! We get points for that as well!"

Sebastian turned back to Kimi, a little more interested since his own involvement in the project _would_ mean he got to spend more time with Kimi.

"Neat! Yea I'd be up for that. Britta could help!" he said, spinning in his chair to see her nodding eagerly.

"Oooh!" Heikki piped up, finding a way he could join into the conversation, "And I could take photos! You know, like you guys. Nude. Covered in paint and oil. Oh that would be a great project!"

He grinned to himself, unbuckling his seat belt as Kimi parked the car, and the other three shared a looked that silently agreed they'd find a way to stop Heikki from 'helping'.


	8. Woolly Jumpers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The four students head to Wrangler but Sebastian, Britta and Heikki are all in for a surprise.
> 
> inspired by [lightsoutprompts](http://lightsoutprompts.tumblr.com) #36
> 
> (apologies to [sweetpeapoppy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpeapoppy/pseuds/sweetpeapoppy) -if you read this- for the fact this is similar to a chapter of yours from Lesson's Learned. I had already written this as i read your chapter, so any similarities were completely unintentional)

The four students walked down the main high street chattering happily about colours for the car and what they knew about racing. Kimi was very into motor sports and had to explain a lot of the details to Heikki and Britta, but Sebsatian knew a fair share due to his father's involvement in the motor industry. Kimi had revealed that Christian was going to be in charge of the college team but wasn't actually allowed to design anything, so he was fairly confident they had a good chance.

As they approach the _Wrangler_ store, Kimi rushed ahead to open the door for his companions. Just as Sebastian was about to follow Britta inside, he heard a high pitch squeal and knew immediately it was Heikki getting theatrically excited about something. 

"Oh my gosh, Kimi!" he cried, his voice still squeakily high, "You're in the fucking shop window, you handsome man, you!"

Kimi looked at Sebastian and raised an eyebrow. Sebastian mouthed sorry back to him, and the Finn grinned, turning back to Heikki and shrugging.

"Yea, I model to pay tuition fees," he explained as he pushed Sebastian back through the door and followed him inside.

"Oh my gosh. You must be like _Wrangler_ royality though," Heikki said, grasping his hands together, his eyes sparkling with delight, "This is so exciting!"

He giggled to himself, doing an excited little jump before waving over at the assistants in the shop and running towards them. Sebastian, Kimi and Britta wandered in the opposite direction, towards the jumpers, still able to hear Heikki's hysterical explanations of how he was friends with the stores most good looking model.

"Is he always so... over the top?" Kimi asked Britta, as he glanced back at Heikki and the assistants.

The photography student was waving at him, so he halfheartedly grinned and waved back before turning to watch Sebastian hold a jumper up against himself.

"Believe me, he's worse when he's drunk," Britta replied as she pulled the jumper from Sebastian's hand, "Seriously Seb, that's horrible. Try the woolly ones over there."

She pointed to a stand full of knitted aztec-print jumpers which she knew were in fashion at the moment. Sebastian walked over, looking slightly confused by the patterns.

"Really?" he said, "Wouldn't plain jumpers look better?"

He glanced at Kimi for backup, but the Finn had already picked a jumper out and held it up to Sebastian.

"This is nice," he said, placing it on Sebastian's arm before picking out a few more jumpers, "Also these. And you will need some new jeans."

"Will I?" Sebastian asked, shocked, staring down at his legs, "What's wrong with my jeans?"

"Nothing," Kimi said, "But these ones would suit you."

Kimi turned away from a stand with a pair of black skinny fit jeans in what he hoped was Sebastian's size.

"Let's try them on then," the Finn said, heading towards the changing room and guiding Sebastian ahead of him with a hand on his shoudler.

Kimi walked to the curtained changing room at the farthest end from the entrance and pushed Sebastian inside, still carrying a pile of clothing, behind him. Kimi followed him in while Britta sat on the stools outside to wait. 

Kimi took the clothing from Sebastian's arms and placed them on the stool in the dressing room before closing the curtain behind him. Sebastian removed his thin cardigan and reached toward one of the jumpers, but Kimi caught his hand, knotting their fingers together as he wrapped his other arm around the German's waist and pushed him against the wall.

Sebastian moved his other hand up to Kimi's hair and tangled his fingers in the blond locks, pulling Kimi's head towards his own. Their lips hit together heavily, both opening their mouths and twisting their tongues together. Sebastian pulled Kimi in closer, releasing his hand and pushing it up the front of Kimi's tshirt, feeling the lines of his abs. 

The Finn broke the kiss, biting Sebastian's lower lip gently as he pulled away.

"Maybe you should try the new jeans," he breathed, his hands moving to Sebastian's belt.

Kimi unbuckled Sebastian's belt, slowly pulling the leather through the metal loop until he could reach the button of his jeans. He deftly popped the button through the eyelet and pulled the jeans apart so that they unzipped themselves. He looked in Sebastian's eyes as he placed his hands behind him and pulled the pants down. He pulled the jeans right to the ground, bending as he did so, allowing him to run his nose lightly along Sebastian's cock through the material of his boxers.

Sebastian let out a quick gasp as he felt himself harden. The adventure in the garden had been one thing, but he knew Britta was just the other side of the curtain and there were security camera's everywhere.

Kimi had showed no signs of stopping though, as he kissed Sebastian's inner thigh, moving up from the knee towards the edge of his boxers. He could see Sebastian growing harder, his cock trying to break free from his underwear.

Quickly, and without warning, he pulled the boxers down, kissing deeper into Sebastian's thigh, right up to his balls, before slowly drawing his tongue along his length.

Sebastian let out a low growl, his eyes closed as tried desperately to grip the wall to prevent himself making too loud a noise. He could feel Kimi kissing his cock, the warm lips leaving tingling sensations. Every now and then his tongue flicked out for a gentle taste, before returning back to kisses. Sebastian moved his hands to Kimi's head, gripping his hair, eyes closed tight shut for fear of cumming early if he looked down to see the mans lips on his cock.

Kimi slowly drew his tongue along his length again, before opening his lips and tonguing the head with quick motions that made Sebastian moan again. Kimi smiled as he licked, enjoying Sebastian's efforts at trying not to make a noise. Just as he could tell Sebastian was reaching the end of his tether, he slid his mouth fully over his cock, sucking lightly as he closed his eyes.

-

Outside the changing room, Britta was wondering why a silence had fallen after Kimi had suggested Sebastian tried on the trousers. She'd heard the belt being unbuckled and the trousers drop to the floor but that was the last she'd heard. It had been quiet for sometime and she was beginning to wonder just how long it took to pull up a pair of skinny jeans.

She pulled out her phone, opening the facebook app to see what was going on while she waited. She opened a fresh status and was about to type _how long does it take Sebastian to try on a pair of trousers?_ when she heard him.

"Oh god, yes" he moaned, "Don't stop."

Britta's mouth gaped and she shut her eyes wishing it would drown out the voice that was now firmly ingrained in her brain. She quickly closed the app and shoved her phone back in her pocket. She could hear Sebastian's heavy breathing intermixed with moans and she quietly got to her feet and tip toed away from the changing room.

As she raced quickly out of the doorway, she ran straight into Heikki.

"There you are!" he exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around, "Let see how he looks, then!"

"NO!" she shouted, panicked, "Come with me. I need your advice on a t-shirt."

The lie fell out of her lips easily, but her face was bright red as she dragged Heikki away from the changing rooms. He glanced back at the closed curtain at the bottom of the walk way and turned to face Britta with his mouth open.

"No. Way?" he grinned, another squeal emitting from his throat, "Oh my gosh, Kimi is just _devine_!"

He gripped Britta's arm, squeezing a little more than was comfortable.

"What a dirty dog!" he said, half laughing, "I didn't think Sebastian had it in him!"

"I don't think Sebastian has anything in him, judging by the noises," Britta replied, shuddering slightly, "I can't believe they did that! They knew I was sat right outside!"

She closed her eyes again, shaking her head, trying to get the sounds to leave her brain. Heikki laughed.

"Sweetheart, we need to find you a man," he said.


	9. Milkshakes, Marshmallows & Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Kimi eventually emerge from the changing rooms and Heikki is quick to respond. Britta decides she needs a coffee to calm down but a new guy in _Katerina's_ catches her eye...

Heikki and Britta wandered around the store for sometime while Sebastian tried his clothing - or, as Heikki kept pointing out, Kimi's mouth - on for size. Britta was trying to zone out the Finn's constant gossip about the duo in the changing rooms by folding up and tidying the stores stands. She was concentrating on folding each jumper exactly symmetrically and then piling them in size order.

She was just about to move onto the next stand when Heikki stopped talking and let out a loud wolf-whistle. She looked up at the Finn before following his eyes in the direction they were pointing. He was watching Sebastian and Kimi walk out of the changing rooms, the German turning a bright shade of red as he walked over to the shop counter.

Heikki immediately skipped over to join him.

"Have fun in there, then?" he asked with a knowing look on his face which caused Sebastian to turn even redder, "Did you even try any of these on you were rather quick?"

"Everything fit perfectly," Kimi replied on Sebastian behalf, causing Heikki to bend over laughing as Britta's face paled.

Sebastian handed the clothing to the girl at the counter who removed the security tags and took Sebastian's card to charge him. Kimi handed over a store card, which reduced the bill by 45%, and Sebastian heaved a sigh of relief as he watched the amount drop from triple figures to double.

He took the carrier from the assistant's hand and headed towards the shop door, pointedly ignoring Heikki who had grabbed Kimi's arm to pester him about their time in the changing room. Britta rushed after Sebastian and punched him hard on the arm.

"Ow!," he said, rubbing the spot, "What was that for?"

"I was sat right outside," Britta spat, trying to keep her voice low despite her anger, "I could _hear_ you!"

Sebastian blushed again, avoiding making eye contact.

"I didn't know he was going to suck me off in there," he said, eyes wide with a glint of satisfaction, "It was good though. One of the best I've had"

"I don't give a shit how good it was," she said, "It's embedded in my fucking ears now."

Sebastian winced as his best friend hissed the words at him.

"Sorry," he said, "I tried to be quiet but..."

"I don't wanna know!" Britta said, striding ahead of him holding her arms up, "I need a coffee."

Britta marched towards _Katerina's_ with the German scuttling after her trying to apologise. Heikki was still trying to glean information from Kimi, who was remaining silent while he tried to catch up with Sebastian.

Inside the coffee shop, the four students sat at the table Britta, Heikki and Sebastian always sat at. The coffee shop was relatively quiet, being a monday afternoon, and Heikki quickly noted that there was a new guy behind the counter.

"Wow, he's handsome." he commented, noting the mans chiseled jaw lines and dark stubble, "What do you think Britta?"

The group look across at the man who was busily cleaning the counter. He was quite tall and tanned with scruffy dark hair. He looked up as they were staring, a look of shock flashing quickly across his face. It was gone in an instant and Britta wondered if he'd been so engrossed in cleaning, he'd not even heard them enter.

"I'll be over in a sec, guys," he said, scrubbing the counter a little more before placing the cloth in the sink and picking up a note pad.

"Australian," Heikki said half to himself as his eyes glazed over in happiness, "What a beautiful accent."

"What can I get you?" he asked, pulling a pen from the front of his apron as he waited for their replies.

The waiter didn't look at them as he took the orders, carefully making note of their table number, despite them being the only customers. Sebastian and Kimi ordered raspberry milkshakes and Britta ordered an English tea. Heikki looked up and down the menu even though he knew what he wanted.

"Mmmm. How about... A hot chocolate with those little marshmallows in please," he looked at the man's name badge and added, "Mark."

Heikki batted his eyelashes as he said the mans name, discretely nudging Britta with his shoulder. Mark looked up briefly, still not making eye contact with anyone and relayed their order.

"Two milkshakes, one English tea and one hot chocolate with little marshmallows," he said, "Coming right up!"

He walked back behind the counter and began making their drinks.

"Well?" Heikki turned to Britta, "You should flirt, see how he reacts. You'd be perfect together."

"Heikki!" Britta hissed, fully aware the coffee shop was quiet enough for the man to hear, "All he's done is take my coffee order!"

She flushed as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at the man serving them drinks. He was good looking - better looking than any of the guys on their course anyway - and she had been single for a while. A lot of people assumed that Sebastian and her were a couple since he wasn't openly gay, but he was her best friend and she could hardly ditch him just so she could get laid more easily.

The Australian returned with their drinks, placing them on the table in front of his customers.

"Give me a shout if you want anything else, alright?" he said as he turned away. 

He sat behind the counter, picking up a magazine and flicking through the pages.

Sebastian sniffed his milkshake, wrinkling his nose and looking at Kimi.

"Is yours raspberry?" he asked, dunking his finger in his own drink and licking the foamy liquid, "I'm sure this is strawberry."

Kimi took a sip of his drink and shrugged.

"No idea. How can you tell?" he asked.

"It's definitely strawberry," Sebastian decided, turning in his chair and clicking his fingers so the Australian looked up, "This is strawberry milkshake. We asked for raspberry, idiot!"

"Ah sorry, mate!" Mark replied, quickly placing his magazine down and rushing over to their table, "I'll make you another, hang on."

Sebastian grumbled loudly enough for the waiter to hear about never being 'mates' with somebody so incompetent, but his words were masked by a long sigh from Heikki.

"Do you think these marshmallows are forming the shape of a heart?" he asked, turning his cup to Britta and drawing the outline with his finger.

She looked away from Sebastian, wondering why he was so angry about the mistake and glanced into Heikki's cup, noting that the marshmallows were scattered randomly about the whole of the top of his drink.

"No, Heikki," she said, "How can you possibly even think that? It's just a mash of mallow?"

Heikki looked back into his cup, pouting as he placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his hand. Britta poured milk into her tea and stirred it as she watched the Australian make two more milkshakes. He quickly poked two straws into the long glasses and hurried over.

"Sorry about that, guys," he said, "How's this, mate?"

He waited by the table as Sebastian tasted his drink. Kimi watched, a small smile playing on his lips at how fussy the German was being.

"It is fine," Sebastian said in a haughty voice, shoving the unwanted milkshakes across the table, "And please stop calling me 'mate'."

The Australian picked up the milkshakes, looking slightly hurt.

"Sorry, mate,"he said apologetically, "Force of habit."

He smiled sadly, realising he'd accidentally used the word again and rushed off before Sebastian could say anything more.

"Sebastian, that was so rude!" Britta said, shocked that he would be so blunt, "What's got into you today?"

As she said the words she looked across at Kimi who still wore a small smile, though he was sipping his milkshake. Sebastian just shrugged, stirring his drink angrily before turning to Kimi and smiling, the twinkle returning to his eyes. 

Britta looked back at the Australian who was looking across at them with concern written on his face. He looked down at his hands when he saw her look up, obviously not wanting her to see he was upset. Maybe Heikki was right, she thought to herself. Maybe she did need to find herself a man. She'd spent the last year and a half with Sebastian, following him around while he and Heikki had their silly little flings, but never meeting anyone herself. Maybe this would give her the break she needed to find someone.

She glanced at Heikki who was eating the Marshmallows from the top of his drink with a spoon and watching the Australian behind the counter. 

"Oh screw it," Britta said, shoving herself up from her seat and picking up her mug of tea. 

She walked across to the counter and placed her tea on top of it, sitting down on one of the stools beside it. She wasn't sure why she was nervous, but Sebastian had been rude and she felt sorry for the Aussie, and not just because his puppy dog eyed sadness was cute. That gave her a good enough reason to go over and talk.

He looked up at the sound of her placing her mug on the counter. His eyes flashed towards it, a look of fear fleeting across his face.

"Is everything okay, ma... madam?" he said.

"It's fine. Lovely tea, actually." she said, hoping she sounded convincing, "Actually I just came to apologise for my idiot friend. I don't know what has got into him today. Sorry if he hurt your feelings. He's not normally so rude, but his new boyfriend just sucked him off in the changing rooms and OH MY GOD, why did I even tell you that?"

She gaped at the Australian, her eyes filled with horror, wondering whether to just run out of the shop an never return. Mark laughed at her expression.

"A little bit too much info there, mate" he said, glancing across the room, "Was it marshmallow or milkshake?"

At first the question confused her, but she quickly realised what he meant.

"Milkshake," she replied, rolling her eyes, "He doesn't seem to be able to keep his hands or mouth off Seb. They didn't even spend thirty minutes in each other's company before fucking each other senseless."

Mark laughed again, looking over at the men sat around the table who were laughing over something Kimi had said. Britta realised that she was probably feeling bitter. Kimi had come into Sebastian's life and taken over as his number one - he didn't need her help when he was sick anymore and Kimi had picked his clothing out this afternoon. She didn't particularly enjoy mothering Sebastian, but it felt a little like she was being pushed out.

"So you and marshmallow?" the Australian asked, apparently unaware of Heikki's sexuality, despite the fact he emitted his homosexuality in the same way the sun emits light.

"No!" she replied quickly, "No, no. He's more Sebastian's type too."

"Ah, so you're the straight best friend?" Mark teased, leaning his elbows on the counter so that his eyes were level with Britta's.

"You could say that," Britta replied, picking up her tea and taking a sip, self consciously folding her little finger around the handle as she noticed it sticking out, "So are you new in town? We're regulars in here and I've not seen you about before."

"Yes, actually," Mark replied, a grin taking over his face, "And hopefully I'll be sticking around for some time."

He winked at Britta, who flushed red and shivered under the intensity of his gaze. Heikki was right, she did need a man and if this was what was on offer, than she was going to jump in head first.

"Ah, so there's something worth sticking around for?" she asked, hoping she was getting the balance of coy and flirty just right.

"Definitely," Mark replied, standing up and picking up his cloth to clean the counter again, "I just don't know if he knows it yet..."

Mark's voice dwindled off and Britta's heart sank. _Another_ gay guy. Where there any straight men in this town? She tried to force her smile back onto her face.

"I'm sure if he has any sense, he will," she said, hoping to sound sympathetic but secretly glad when she heard the sound of her friends chairs being pushed backwards to signal they were leaving.

"Britta, darling," Heikki called as he slid hit coat on, "Are you coming or are you staying with Mr Handsome over there?"

He waved coyly at the Australian as Britta downed the rest of her tea and ran to grab her coat.

"Coming, coming," she said, following them towards the door, not glancing back at Mark or saying farewell.

"See ya later, guys," Mark shouted after them, waving as they closed the door behind them. 

Britta let herself have a quick glance through the window at the Australian and decided she was done with men. It was more hassle than it was worth.


	10. Thinking Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heikki joins Sebastian and Kimi in the car heading back to college. He's excited that Mark is gay, but Sebastian still seems on edge about the Australian. Britta decides to walk home and have a think about where her life is going and what she needs to do to keep on track.

"Well?" Heikki said, immediately hooking his hand through Britta's arm as they stepped out of the coffee shop.

"He's gay," she replied, trying not to sound deflated.

"Yes!" Heikki squealed before noticing Britta's face, "I mean... That's a shame. But there are plenty more fish in the sea!"

"Shut up, Heikki," Britta mumbled, catching up with Sebastian and Kimi who were walking hand in hand, slightly ahead of them, "I think he already has a boyfriend."

"Who's got a boyfriend?" Sebastian asked, tearing his gaze away from Kimi as she walked beside them.

"Mark," Britta replied, "The coffee shop hotty."

"Poor guy," Sebastian said, "Bet he can't even get a cup of tea right in a morning when they wake up."

"Will you chill out, Seb," Britta replied, defending the Australian, "One wrong milkshake order and you already have some stupid vendetta on the guy. What's wrong with you?"

"Sorry," Sebastian replied, not sounding at all apologetic, "He just rubbed me up the wrong way. So happy and cheesy."

"He was just giving good customer service," Britta said, "Service with a smile!"

She didn't really know why she was having this argument with Sebastian. Firstly, he was never normally so openly rude to someone, but also she wasn't sure why she felt like she had to defend a guy she barely even knew.

"If it was good customer service, why did he get my order wrong?" Sebastian asked, daring Britta to argue back.

"You know I couldn't even tell the difference between the two shakes," Kimi replied, grinning at Sebastian and Britta, "Was it even Strawberry the first one?"

Sebastian puffed his cheeks out and stormed ahead. Britta glanced across at Kimi who was laughing as the German walked ahead of them, swinging his arms angrily. She pushed the anger that was rising within her down. She couldn't _really_ blame Kimi for what happened. He'd sat quietly letting Sebastian act like an idiot, he hadn't force him into anything. And she was still hanging out with them at the moment, so it wasn't like she'd been fully cast out yet. 

She smiled at Kimi, deciding that being friendly was the better option.

"Are you going back to college now?" she asked, noticing they were heading in the direction of the Finn's car.

"Yea," he replied, "Lecture at two."

Britta glanced at her watch, noticing it was half past one. She had no lectures that afternoon and didn't really need to go back to college. Sebastian would go, just to spend more time with Kimi, but she couldn't face the idea of walking back home with him talking about how wonderful his new boyfriend was.

"I think I'll just walk home from here then," she said, "No point going back into college, nothing on this afternoon."

Kimi nodded and gave a small salute of goodbye as he jogged to catch up with Sebastian. The German turned and shouted good bye as she waved to him, turning to walk back down the main street in the direction of her apartment.

Heikki was right behind her.

"I'm gonna go and with Sebastian and Kimi," he said leaning forward and kissing Britta on both cheeks, "See you later, sugar!"

She watched Heikki skip after the others, thankful that she would have some alone time to think as she walked home.

\--

"Wait for me!" Heikki squealed as he caught up with Sebastian and Kimi, "Can I have a lift too, Kimster?"

The Finn raised his eyebrow.

"It's Kimi," he replied bluntly, "And you're in the back."

Sebastian stuck his tongue out at Heikki as they rounded the corner to the car park, but the Finn just shrugged, grinning because his presence meant Sebastian wouldn't be crossing car sex from his bucket list.

As they climbed into the vehicle, Heikki slid into the middle of the back seat and leaned forward so his lips were just behind the ears of the men in front.

"Did you know Mark was gay?" he half whispered, the excitement causing his voice to rise in pitch.

Sebastian grunted a yes and turned to look out of the passenger side window, pointedly not looking at the other men in the car.

"You did?" Heikki replied, shocked, "Do you know him?"

The Finn was excited, but Kimi looked across with confusion written on his brow.

"How do you know him?" Kimi asked.

Sebastian shrugged, not turning back from gazing out of the window.

"Is he single?" Heikki quizzed excitedly, "Why didn't you tell Britta? Oh my gosh, she was devastated, but if he's single I'm totally going to make a move. Do you know, Sebastian? Does he have a type? Oh his accent was _so_ divine."

Heikki rambled about the Australian in the coffee shop for sometime while Kimi looked between the road and Sebastian, silently trying to work out what was wrong with him and why Mark had caused this odd mood. Neither of the men in the front of the car were paying the Finn any attention, but that didn't seem to stop his rambling.

"Do you then?" Heikki said, finishing his talk and glancing expectantly between the two men, "Do you think Aussie accents are hot?"

"I heard Sebastian preferred English accents," Kimi mocked, hoping to get at least some sort of reaction from the German who was still staring out of them window.

"No I don't," he replied, bluntly. 

"Oh yes?" Heikki asked, full of intrigue, "What's this all about then?"

Kimi grinned, waiting for Sebastian to turn and answer, but the German didn't look around.

"Shut up," he said.

Heikki and Kimi shared a look and the car fell silent, remaining that way for the rest of the journey to college.

\----

The walk back to Britta's apartment was a long one, running through town and out into the student area just beyond it. For a Monday afternoon it was relatively quiet, and so she had plenty of time to think, whilst she concentrated on not slipping on the icy walkways.

At first she started mentally ticking off all the things she disliked about herself, but stopped when she realised that list was longer than she'd initially thought. Putting herself down wouldn't help - in all, the things she considered 'wrong' about herself, were things that she thought other people didn't like, not things she would specifically change about herself to make her happier.

Instead, she decided to think about the future - about what she wanted out of life and how she imagined herself in ten years time. She thought about her small group of friends, Sebastian and Heikki - should she include Kimi now? - and whether she imagined them being in her life later down the line.

She'd never had a friend as close as Sebastian, and it hurt that Kimi seemed to come along and win his affection so easily, but she wasn't going to let him ditch her without a fight. Their friendship meant a lot to her and she didn't really want to end up stuck with just Heikki. It wasn't that she didn't like the Finn, it was just that he was a bit too much to handle alone, and whenever Heikki was around she always ended up in embarrassing situations.

She concluded that her friendships meant the most to her - that she would rather have Sebastian and Heikki in her life that lose them to find something more. But at the same time she wanted to find a man that really cared for her, that would let her fall asleep in his arms because they were in love, not because they were drunk and landed like that.

By the time Britta had come to the conclusion that finding a man and not ruining her friendship with Sebastian would actually require effort on her part more than her friends, she found that she was home. She unlocked the door, a smile returning to her face since she now had a clearer picture of how she wanted her life to go.

She shut the door behind her and had just removed her coat when her mobile phone buzzed. It was a text from Sebastian - he hadn't forgotten her. She grinned while she opened the text and soon found herself rolling her eyes and laughing:

_Shit Britta. The new jeans don't fit. Will you go back with me tomorrow to change them?_


	11. Competition & Casanova

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After waiting for Kimi to finish a lecture, Sebastian and Britta are invited in to the lecture theatre to discuss the upcoming competition. The meet the other engineer and driver, who turns out to be a little too suave for Britta's liking.

Sebastian was shuffling in the chair outside Kimi's lecture hall, trying to get comfortable in the new jeans he was wearing. Bitta had gone back to the store with him earlier that week and he'd bought a bigger size, but he just couldn't get used to how tight they were around his credentials.

"Will you stop jiffling," Britta hissed, looking up from the sketchpad that was on her lap, "You're putting me off!"

"Sorry!" Sebastian replied, sliding down in the chair so his legs stretched across the corridor and his head rested on the chair back, "I just can't get comfortable in these pants. They're so tight."

Britta sighed, dropping her sketch pad onto the floor below her chair and placing the pencil on top of it. She turned to face Sebastian.

"Why don't you just take them back and buy some jeans you're comfortable wearing?" she asked, trying hard to avoid the bulge of Sebastian's crotch that was daring her eyes to look at it.

"Because Kimi likes them. He says they make my bum looks cute," he smiled at the memory of the Finn saying those words and he could almost feel Kimi's hand grabbing his butt and carrying him back up to his bedroom.

Britta rolled her eyes as she noticed Sebastian's glaze over into some daydream of Kimi.

"I'm surprised he wants you flaunting your cute butt around," she mumbled, knowing that her friend wasn't listening, "Who knows who might come along and bite it!"

She picked her sketch pad and pencil up and continued drawing. She'd been trying to draw the car that Kimi had sent her a drawing off. It was an AutoCAD drawing of the design for the chassis of the car they wanted to enter into the competition. Britta had been trying to draw it from several angles ready to start designing the livery.

From inside the lecture hall, Britta heard the noise levels rise as the Professor stopped talking and the students gathered their things to leave for lunch. Sebastian slid back up the chair, trying to find a comfortable seated position before deciding to stand. He walked to the other side of the corridor and leaned against the wall, bending one leg at the knee and placing his foot flat on the wall, like a model. 

After most of the students had filed out of the door, Kimi appeared, chatting with another bearded student. Sebastian was about to say hello when the door to the lecture hall swung open again and Christian, the car mechanic and engineering Professor, stuck his head out.

"Kimi, Fernando, can you nip back in here a minute," he said, his English accent tingling through Sebastian despite his protestations that he didn't like it, "Need a chat about the competition."

Kimi and his bearded friend both stopped and turned, walking back into the lecture theatre. Kimi gave Sebastian an apologetic wave, before shutting the door behind him.

Sebastian walked back to the chair beside Britta and slumped down. He was about to comment on how strange it was that Christian was an engineering Professor when the door opened again and the Englishman asked them both join them.

"Kimi tells me you're both art students," Christian said as they walked down the steps to the front of the hall where Kimi and Fernando were sat, "I'd like to hear your ideas for the livery, but first I think you should meet the team."

As they slid along the bottom row of seating, Christian spread his arms to present Kimi and Fernando.

"Kimi, who you already know, will be our lead engineer, with the help of Fernando. Fernando will also be driving the car in the final race. He tells me he has some experience behind the wheel from karting as a youngster."

Fernando nodded to Sebastian before walking towards Britta and taking her hand. He lifted her fingers upward and bent his head down to kiss them, his beard tickling her knuckles.

"Hola bella," he said as he looked into her eyes, his own twinkling as he gave her a small smile and stepped backwards.

Britta had to force herself not to laugh as she caught Sebastian giggling behind him.

"Hi," she replied, "I'm Britta. Art student. Here for aesthetic purposes."

"Si, Si, I can see that," Fernando said smiling, unable to take his eyes from the girl before him.

"Okay, that's quite enough gallantry, thank you Fernando," Christian cut in, smiling apologetically to Britta.

She grinned at the Professor as Fernando seated himself beside Kimi. The Spaniard was fairly handsome, but he seemed a bit too suave for her liking. He seemed like the type of man who would take an hour in the morning just to get his hair and beard looking good. It was rather flattering though.

She looked back at Professor Christian who was flicking through some pieces of paper in a file. His brow was furrowed as though he was searching for something that he'd lost. He had a lovely accent. Britta had spent a short amount of time in the UK - in the North, where the accents were broad and harsh - but Christian's was lighter and soothing. She could see why Sebastian had been drawn in.

Suddenly he stopped searching, dropping the pages from the file heavily as he opened the ring binder and pulled out a pocket that was filled with paper. He looked up at the small group of students before him as he pulled the paper from the pocket and separated them into piles.

"This is the competition information," he said, handing each of them a bundle of sheets, "The rules, the requirements and the prize. It's a new competition so you have nothing to live up to from past students. It is a world wide competition though and the final race is at Monza. I don't know if you know anything about motor sport, but that's a really cool thing and I'll be pretty pissed off if you fuck this up and we don't get to go on a trip there."

Kimi and Fernando's eyes both came alight as Monza was mentioned, both excited at the thought of taking a car there and racing. Becoming a racing driver was something that Fernando had always dreamed of as a child, but a lack of money from his parents had meant he changed his dreams to becoming an engineer. Driving around the track in the student race car would be just as good though, he was determined that they wouldn't mess this up.

"The basic rules on livery, for both car and helmet, is that you can have anything as long as it's not considered rude or defamatory. Helmet designs have to be issued by end of February as the company behind the competition are providing them to make sure they cover the relevant safety requirements," Christian explained, making sure that Sebastian and Britta were both concentrating.

"We're allowed to get sponsorship," he continued, "which can pay for race suits and costs towards building the car as well as travel and transportation costs. We'll be provided with tyres for testing and the race but otherwise we've just got the measurements as we're not allowed to drive the car until the testing sessions specified." 

The students all nodded, Kimi and Fernando reading through the requirements for the car which Sebastian had looked at and decided to ignore. Christian walked over to the two art students and placed another sheet on the desk. It showed the graduation robes in the colours of the college - a navy blue robe, with a red and yellow hood.

"I think it would be nice if we could include the college colours in the livery and helmet design," he said, "They're not completely tragic to work with and I'm sure, as students of Art, you won't have any bother coming up with something spectacular. There is a prize for the best livery so try to come up with something different and eye catching. I have complete faith in you."

Christian winked as Sebastian and Britta both nodded. They'd not really discussed there plans for the car, having been waiting for the AutoCAD design of the chassis. They had jokingly come up with a few ideas, but they were out not that they had the rules.

"We'll come up with a few ideas and put them to vote," Britta said, thinking on her feet, "We'll have them with you by next week. Maybe we should all go away and get some plans together and meet up somewhere to discuss it each week."

"Si, that sounds perfect," Fernando said, "My friend works at a cafe in town, we could meet there and he will provide us teas and cakes."

The group agreed that free tea and cakes would be nice and Christian suggested that they met each Wendesday afternoon, since that was normally reserved for sports. Everybody nodded, as none of the students were in any of the sports teams.

"I will let Mark know!" Fernando said, "The cafe is..."

He was cut off by Britta.

" _Katerina's >/i>? You're friends with Mark?" she said, wondering if the Casanova before her was the man her coffee shop hottie was pining over._

_"Si, Mark is my best friend," Fernando grinned, "You know him?"_

_"Well, barely. He served us coffee the other day and we got chatting," Britta had to force herself not to blush, "We go to _Katerina's_ a lot. I like it in there."_

_"Well that's settled then," Christian butted in, leaning on the desk in front of Britta and looking into her eyes, "It's a date! Meet you all there at one o'clock on Wednesday with our ideas."_

_He slapped the table to end the meeting and the students stuffed their paperwork in their bags and headed for the door._

_Kimi skipped the steps two at a time to catch up with Sebastian, who was following Fernando out of the door, and slide his fingers between the German's. He was about to suggest they went to the college restaurant for some coffee when Christian called after them._

_"Is your car still running OK Sebastian?" he said, a small sneer on his lips as Kimi turned around, "Hope so, or it doesn't bode well for the competition!"_

_The Finn gripped Sebastian's shoulder and pushed him through the door and into the corridor before he had chance to reply, before turning around to call back into the lecture theatre._

_"It's running perfectly, actually. It's probably for the best you're not allowed to help us design the car and I'm chief engineer."_

_He let the door slam behind him and placed his arm around Sebastian's shoulder, guiding him towards the exit of the engineering department building, leaving Britta to watch anxiously from the top of the stairway as Christian turned around and sadly began sliding the paperwork back into the file pocket._


	12. Air Flows & Flying Lows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britta visits Sebastian to discuss their designs for the competition, but Sebastian is very easily distracted.

Britta found herself frantically knocking on Sebastian's door on Tuesday evening. She was hoping that he'd have remembered their arrangement and that he'd have left the door on the latch. Maybe even have had a cup of tea ready, but now she was beginning to wonder if he was actually in the house or not.

She was about to give up and struggle back home with her artwork when she heard movement inside and saw the blurred figure of her friend rushing down the stairs. 

He opened the door hurriedly, his messed up hair bouncing from the rush as he brushed his hand down the back of his trousers as though wiping them dry.

"Sorry Britta, sorry," he said, out of breath as he stepped aside to allow her to enter the hallway, "Come in, I'll clear the kitchen table."

Britta paused outside the door and looked Sebastian up and down. His fly was unzipped and his t-shirt was crinkled, caught on the waistline of his jeans on the right side.

"Is now a bad time?" she asked, pointing back down the driveway to signal that she was happy to leave.

"No, no," Sebastian said, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the door, "It's fine. I was just... napping."

"And the monster under your bed crept out and unzipped your fly?" Britta quipped, raising an eyebrow.

Sebastian flushed slightly as he looked down at his pants and quickly turned his back zip them up. He gave no reply as he marched into the kitchen and flicked the kettle on. Britta had a quick glance up the staircase before realising that Kimi's car hadn't been parked outside. She made a mental note to wash the hand where Sebastian had grabbed her as soon as possible.

"So I bought my designs with me," said announced as she placed her art folder on the table and the sat on one of the chairs, "There's a few different ones. I was experimenting. Not sure what the best way to paint them onto the actually chassis would be though..."

She slid the A2 sheets out from the folder and placed them on the desk for Sebastian to see. Each of them was based on the car being painted a navy blue, with yellows, reds and purples forming the pattern.

"I wanted to make it look like it was moving fast," she explained as she noticed Sebastian's confused looks, "But then I googled a bit about motorsport and decided on this technique instead."

"What is it?" Sebastian asked, clueless as to why the colours seemed to be so randomly stretching across the car, more prominent at the front and barely reaching to the back.

"It's the air flow." Britta said in a voice that said she thought this was obvious, "During testing, teams use Flow Visualisation paint to see how aerodynamic the car is. So I used that idea. Only on a slightly smaller scale with acrylic paint. I just blew through a straw from the front of the design. That's the bit I'm not sure how to replicate."

She picked her favourite design out and admired it again. This one was her favourite because it almost looked like a flame running down the side of the car. She had painted the navy blue first, then blown purple across as far as it would reach. Then the red had gone over this, not quite as far along as the purple, and the yellow had topped that.

"This is my favourite," she said to her friend, "What do you think?"

The kettle pinged in the corner of the room.

"You make the tea, I'll go get my designs," Sebastian said, ignoring her question as he rushed upstairs to gather his artwork.

Britta shuffled over to the kettle, feeling slightly shrugged off, and grabbed tea bags out of the tin. She placed one in each cup and added hot water. She flicked through her designs again, pulling out one for the helmet, while she waited for the tea to brew.

For the helmet, her design had been based on some of the styles she'd found for previous formula one champions. Aryton Senna's had caught her eye, so she'd played about with the four colours and differently place rings around the helmet in a similar way. She quickly decided that a base of blue, with a thick purple central ring was her favourite. She'd added thinner red and yellow rings above and below the purple ring and thought it looked slightly like a planet with it's rings surrounding it.

The sound of Sebastian's feet hitting the stairs on his way back down pulled Britta from the thoughts of her designs and she quickly spooned out the tea bags and added milk to the cups. She placed them both on the table as Sebastian sat down and pulled out his drawings.

He had only one design for each of the car and the helmet, and they both matched. The images he placed before her were loud and vibrant, sharp edges highlighted with whites and black, turned into smooth curves over the wheels. The main colours used were the same as Britta's, as per Christian's idea, but the way they were placed together made them seem to clash and stand out more. She studied the design whilst she sipped at her tea, trying to understand what Sebastian was intending with such a loud design.

"It was inspired by Kimi," Sebastian eventually exaplained as he ran his finger along one of the white lines, "Sharp and fiery but also smooth and sexy."

The German grinned at Britta as she raised her eyebrow at him.

"It's Fernando driving," she reminded him, "So probably don't tell him you want to paint his car with your wet dreams about Kimi."

"It's Kimi's passion that will be getting the car on the track," Sebastian said, placing the helmet design in front of her, "And it's Kimi's passion that gives me the ideas."

The helmet was similar to Britta's design, only the top was a white star, and the other colours followed the outline in stripes around it, each separated with black lines.

"I like this," Britta said, running her finger along the stars outline, "It will look really cool with the car number inside the star."

She quickly admitted that Sebastian's helmet design was much better than her own and pulled her car designs out again to compare them against it.

"I was thinking of options for painting this type of design," she said, pointing at the air flows she had created, "To get it to look realistic, I mean. We could either use a leaf blower to blast the paint along, or attach the chassis to something moving, like your car, and seeing how the paint flows from that."

Sebastian nodded, imagining the mess that would create. 

"Could we not just blow your designs up large and use them like stencils?" he asked, not really understand the concept of Britta's design.

"Well no, because that defeats the object of it being based on airflow," she said, pointing at places in her design where the paint almost looked splattered or barely visible, "It's not just a block painted on, it's the paint flowing where it finds easiest."

Sebastian looked at her, still clearly confused.

"Never mind, Seb," she said, shaking her head and trying not to laugh, "I'm sure the engineers will understand. Maybe we should let them decide which design they prefer? Kimi, Fernando and Christian can each take a vote."

Sebastian nodded as he sipped at his tea, imagining Kimi laid naked over a car with his design painted on it. The Finn was wearing just the helmet. Sebastian's eyes glazed over as he imagined walking up to him, slowly removing his own clothing, and pushing himself against the Finn, climbing on top of him and laying over him on the car. He imagined the feel of Kimi's hard cock in his hand and the taste of his skin as he mouthed at his neck, his own erection rubbing between his boyfriends legs.

He was roughly awoken from his day-dream by Britta pushing her chair backwards causing it to scrape loudly across the kitchen floor.

"Well," she said, knowing that Sebastian was itching to get back upstairs and see to himself all over again, "I'm going to head back home and finish the coursework for Art History, I've almost got it done. I want it out of the way before the next module starts."

She knew that Sebastian wouldn't have even started the assignment, but she was determined to hand her own in before he asked for help. She had let him use her work before - for inspiration - and discovered he'd copied it directly, so she was adamant that wouldn't happen again.

Sebastian slowly stood, trying to hide his hardened cock behind the table as he leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. He didn't dare speak, worrying about the noise that would come out if he tried.

"See you at _Katerina's_ tomorrow," Britta said, gathering her work and putting her coat back on, "Don't be late!"

She headed down the hallway and let herself out of the door, deliberately slamming it behind her so that the latch locked itself.

As soon as she was gone, Sebastian abandoned his trousers and ran up the stairs back to his bedroom. He jumped onto the bed and pulled his laptop back towards him, the screen still showing the results of his search, the image of his day-dream coming back, only this time the car was a _Ferrari_.

Kimi certainly had kept some of the photo shoots he'd done to pay for college tuition quiet.


	13. Three Votes to Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first meeting for the competition is held and the team vote on which of Sebastian and Britta's designs they want to use.

Sebastian and Britta were sat at their usual table in _Katerina's_ the following Wednesday afternoon when Heikki walked in. They'd invited him to the meeting at the last minute, after he'd asked if he could document their progress for one of his photography projects. He waved at them before walking straight over to the coffee bar and leaning over to smile at Mark.

"Hi Mark," he called, fluttering his eyes lashes at the Australian who smiled back at him.

"Hey," he replied, "What can I get you, mate?"

"Oh just a tea please. It's so cold outside!" he grinned widely at Mark who turned to prepare his tea, before joining Sebastian and Britta at their table, taking glances over at the Australian every few seconds.

Fernando and Kimi stumbled in through the door, their hoods pulled over their heads from the snow that was falling outside. They both stamped their feet on the welcome mat, before removing their coats and placing them on the coat stand.

Mark grinned at Fernando as he placed Heikki's drink on the table, spilling it as his attention focused on his friend, and walked over to give him a warm hug. Britta watched Heikki's face turned green with envy and a quiet sigh emitted from his lips.

"You're freezing mate," Mark said to Fernando, not releasing him from the hug as he rubbed the Spaniard's arms, "Come on, I'll get you warmed up."

"A tea will be fine please, Mark," Fernando said removing himself from the Australian's grip and waving at Britta who flushed behind her coffee cup, "I've got work to do."

Fernando walked over to the table, rubbing Britta's shoulder as he passed her, and Kimi followed, sitting himself on the sofa beside Sebastian and kissing him on the neck with one eye on Mark who gave him a confused look. 

Sebastian had refused to speak to Mark since they entered the building. Britta had felt shy and awkward, both because of how rude Sebastian had been but also because of her shameless attempts at flirting previously. She had managed to order them drinks though, and Mark had been preparing them a lunch of sandwiches and cakes to bring out when Christian arrived.

The group sat quietly sipping their drinks whilst they waited for the lecturer to arrive. Heikki was taking photos of their surroundings and Britta couldn't help but notice that all of the shots he took included images of Mark. Sebastian was now all but sat on Kimi's lap, his hand stroking the inner of the Finn's thigh. Fernando quietly watched Britta who was concentrating hard on her phone to avoid having to make small talk.

Christian eventually arrived, bringing another flurry of snow into the cafe, and Mark bought tea, sandwiches and cakes out to their table. There were no other customers brave enough to make a trip out in the weather to stop for tea and so he sat on the spare chair and listened in to the meeting.

"I guess we should do a vote on the designs then," Christian said after Sebastian and Britta had both proudly presented their artwork, "All in favour of Sebastian's design?"

Kimi and Fernando both raised their arms. Britta was surprised to see that Fernando voted against her and decided she probably should have chatted with him instead of ignoring him. After a glance around, Mark also raised his hand, smiling at Fernando when he turned to see what the movement had been. Britta's heart sank, realising she'd been outvoted.

"Okay, so that is three for Sebastian, leaving just two for Britta's designs," Christian counted, "Sorry Britta. Sebastian's design it is then."

Sebastian beamed and Kimi leaned over him to plant a long, wet kiss on his lips, his hand slowly running further up the inside of his leg until Christian cleared his throat and caused them to jump apart.

"Any other business?" Christian asked, glancing around the table and noticing Britta's dejected gaze and feeling sorry for her, "If not, I say we get home before this weather gets any worse."

Kimi and Sebastian almost knocked the table over in their haste to leave, saying quick good byes before rushing from the coffee shop hand in hand. Mark also stood and began to collect the empty plates and tea cups, nudging Fernando to help him and dragging him into the back of the shop.

Christian was still finishing his tea as Britta began to pack her designs into her art case ready for the walk home.  
"I'm sorry you were outvoted," he said, "I thought your designs were inspiring. I can see you will do well in graphic design and art careers in the future."

Britta grinned, the compliment bringing a flush to her pale cheeks which Christian thought made her eyes shine and lips stand out. His stomach flipped and he decided to take a chance, knowing that it probably wasn't strictly within the rules of his job as a lecturer.

"Do you need a lift home? This weather is awful, I wouldn't want you to get stuck out in it?"

She was about to decline the offer when Heikki nudged her and wiggled his eyebrows. She knew exactly what he meant by it, and knowing Heikki she knew he'd end up talking her into a situation were should couldn't refuse if she tried to. Or worse, he'd say something embarrassing which would results in awkward situations with the lecturer at all the further meetings.

"That would be very kind of you," Britta replied, "As long as it's not out of your way?"

"Oh don't worry about that, if you're finished we could leave now?" Christian said, pushing the half empty tea cup into the centre of the table to indicate he was ready to leave.

Heikki drew his chair back and started sliding his arm into his coat.

"I best be off anyway," he said grinning and winking at Britta, "I think I'm going to see what shots of the snow I can get. Don't you think it's very pretty?"

He bent down to kiss Britta on the cheek and waved at Christian before running to the door of the coffee shop and disappearing into the thickening snow.

Britta slowly donned her coat and, feeling slightly uncomfortable at hanging around with an engineering lecturer, she walked with him to his car. She threw her art folders on the back seat and climbed into the front beside Christian, who asked her to give him directions to her flat.

The drive was slow with the weather being so disruptive but eventually they pulled up at Britta's flat. christian jumped out of the car quickly and rushed around to Britta's door to hold it open and help her out.

"Quite the gentleman," she commented, laughing slightly as Christian opened the back doors of the car and pulled out her folders, "You can tell you're English!"

Christian laughed, a little flush on his cheeks which Britta took for a reaction to the cold. He turned around and stared deep into her eyes, a small smile playing on his mouth beneath the thin layer of stubble that spread across his face.

"Here you go," he said, handing her the folder and stepping forward to take her arm in his hand, "I'll walk you to the door, it's quite slippery."

Together, they walked up the pathway that led to Britta's front door and she fumbled in her coat pocket to find the keys. Once the door was open and she had stepped inside she turned around to say thank you and goodbye to Christian.

Before she had a chance to speak though, he leaned forward and planted a delicate kiss on her cheek. The flush that reddened his face as he stepped back was definitely from embarrassment this time. She gaped at him for a moment, wondering how to react and a look of shame filled the Englishman's eyes.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he said quickly, dropping his gaze and turning to leave, "I'll go. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have."

Britta stared after him as he walked back towards his car, slipping on the icy pathway as he went. She reached up to her face and felt the warm patch where his lips had touched her skin. He had just opened the drivers side door when Britta shook herself back to her senses and before she could think about it further, called after him.

"You can stay here if you like. You know, because the weather is quite dangerous to drive in."


	14. Fingers & Mouths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fernando and Mark stay at _Katerina's_ to wash up, whilst Sebastian and Kimi head for a shower and Britta finds herself with only a towel to wear...

Fernando followed Mark into the kitchen area at the back of _Katerina's_ carrying the empty plates and cups from their meeting. It was quiet now that everybody had left, and Fernando was glad that the vote had gone in favour of Sebastian's design. It wasn't that he didn't _like_ Britta's idea, it just reminded him too much of fire and the last thing he wanted was for the car to explode with him in it.

Mark placed the cups he was carrying in the sink and turned to take Fernando's load from him, lightly brushing his fingers across the Spaniards' hand as he did so. Fernando didn't react, thinking to himself that it hadn't taken long for the Australian to make further attempts at seducing him now he was back in town.

"You wash up, mate," Mark said to him, "And I'll go get the rest of the cups."

He walked out of the kitchen, turning to whip Fernando's backside with a towel as he passed, and went to clear the rest of the tables. Fernando ignored him again, turning to the sink and twisting the hot tap until the water flowed and began to fill the bowl.

He watched the water running up the edge of sink, the bubbles from the washing up liquid fizzing and popping as the heat rose from it. It made Fernando think of home, and the warmth of Spain. He didn't like snow. He liked to wear shorts and thin loose t-shirts. Coats and hats and scarves were such a pain.

While he was lost in a day dream about home, Mark came back into the kitchen and walked up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist and placing his chin on the Spaniards shoulder, pressing kisses into his neck. Fernando tried to shrug him off, but Mark persisted, running his hands down his torso and sliding his fingers under the waistband of his jeans.

Fernando spun around quickly, pushing Mark back.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he said, his face growing angry, "How uninterested do I have to be for you stop this?"

Mark gaped at him, his eyes filling with tears.

"I thought..." he started, "I just... I mean... Me and you?"

"There _is_ no 'me and you', Mark," Fernando shouted back, flinging the cloth he was using to wash up at the Australian, "When will you get that into your head. I. Am. Not. Gay."

Mark stared back at him, the hurt clear on his face. The wet cloth clung to his shoulder, dripping onto the floor along with all the hopes and dreams he'd had of a future with Fernando.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his gaze turning to the floor as he pulled the cloth free and wrung it between his hands, "I ... I can't help that I love you."

All of the anger in Fernando faded, immediately feeling bad for shouting at his friend. He had known that Mark was in love with him for sometime and had tried to make it obvious he wasn't interested, but clearly that wasn't enough. He stepped forward, placing one hand on Mark's shoulder and using the other to lift his chin so that the Australian had to look at him.

"I'm sorry, Mark," he said, sincerely, "I don't want to hurt you. You're my best friend, but I just don't feel the same. Forgive me, I shouldn't have shouted."

Mark gulped, nodding and forcing back the tears, trying to be brave. He forced himself to laugh and threw the cloth back at Fernando.

"You'd better get back to washing up, or we'll be here all night," he said, attempting the joke to cover up his sadness.

Mark turned away from his friend, busying himself with cutlery to hide his eyes which were still filling with tears. Fernando barked a laugh and turned back to the sink.

"I don't even work here," he laughed, "I'm free to go whenever I want."

Mark paused, his hands shaking over a spoon that needed rewashing. He ran the last sentence through his head a few times, realising that it was true - Fernando was still here because he wanted to be. Maybe there was still a chance, he thought to himself.

\---

Kimi and Sebastian burst through the front door, already half tearing each others clothes off. They just about managed to slam it shut before chasing one another up the stairs and into the bathroom. 

Sebastian tore Kimi's t-shirt over his head, pressing him up against the wall and rubbing their bodies together, while the Finn tried to slide his hands through to un button Sebastian's trousers. He could feel his cock throbbing already, waiting to be freed, waiting for Kimi's touch.

They paused for breath, straining away from one another's kisses while they finished undressing and turned the shower on, both stepping through the glass doors and into the stream of hot water. Their hardening cocks seeping with pre-come as they rubbed their hands up and down each others torsos.

It was Kimi who reached Sebastian's cock first, running his fingers from the base to the tip, before turning Sebastian around so he was facing away from him and taking it fully in his hand, pumping softly so that Sebastian groaned loudly and ground his backside into Kimi's crotch.

"Fuck," he gasped, already on the edge even though Kimi had barely begun, "Faster, fuck, Kimi.'

The Finn smiled, complying to Sebastian's request while he nuzzled at his neck, leaving red marks everywhere his lips touched. 

He took his free hand down to his own cock, and mimicked the movements he was using on Sebastian, bringing himself to the point he was taking the German, biting onto Sebastian's neck as he tried to stop himself from coming so soon.

Sebastian groaned louder, his own hands joining Kimi's around his cock, come squirting over both of their hands and mixing with the shower water.

"Urgh, yes," he moaned and released Kimi's hand, taking it in his own and turning around. His head felt light, but he force Kimi against the cold shower tiles, beginning to return the favour with his own hand as his tongue explored the Finn's mouth.

Kimi had more restraint than Sebastian, enduring his fingers for much longer, leaning his head backwards with his eyes closed. Sebastian could feel his heart beating faster in his chest. He stopped pumping with his fist, moving his hand to the base of Kimi's cock and tickling his balls as he bent down to he knees.

His mouth was level with Kimi's cock before the Finn released what he was doing, and Sebastian took his full length in his mouth, running his tongue lightly across the tip whilst sucking gently. _That_ got Kimi moaning.

"Seb, you fucking shit," he growled, trying to stop himself from coming so that he could have more, "Fuck. Fuck."

Sebastian grinned to himself, drawing his lips along the length of Kimi's cock and kissing gently along it, before returning to lick the tip and take it whole again. It wasn't long before Kimi spent himself in Sebastian's mouth. He licked his lips before drawing himself up, kissing up Kimi's torso from his crotch up to his neck, before reaching his lips again.

"Fuck you're good," Kimi groaned into his neck, sliding his hand between Sebastian's legs and rubbing his balls in his palm, "God. Fuck. Do it again."

\---

Britta had set up the bed in the spare room and left Christian in her lounge watching TV shows. She was still a little uncertain about what she had decided to do, so she'd run herself a hot bath with the intentions of relaxing herself and avoiding any awkward situations.

It wasn't until she'd got out of the bath that she realised she had left her pyjamas in her bedroom. The clothes she'd been wearing were already in the wash basket, mingling with clothes she'd worn at the gym, and she didn't want to go back into the lounge smelling worse that she had before her bath.

She decided there was only one thing for it - the towel dash into her bedroom.

She pressed her ear against the door, listening to see if Christian was still in the lounge. She could hear the TV but no sound to suggest where the lecturer was, so she carefully opened the bathroom door and stepped outside.

Within a second, Christian was at the door to the lounge. He stopped, his mouth part open as though he was about to speak and looked her up and down. The towel covered her breasts and ended several inches above her knees. Her legs were on show and Christian seemed very fascinated by them.

"I forgot to take my pyjamas with me," she explained, blushing and pulling the towel tighter around her as she walked towards the bedroom.

"I'm glad," Christian replied, stepping towards her and blocking her way. He looking her up and down with a smile that made Britta's heart skip a beat, "How about you forget the towel too?"

Britta flushed, her eyes and mouth both gaping at the lecturer. He laughed at her response, stepping closer still and taking her hand, which held on to the towel. 

He slowly pulled it away from her, bringing the towel with it. She didn't stop him, but she did try to grab the towel with her other hand, accidentally letting the other end slip. 

The towel fell to the floor and she was stood naked before the lecturer who was now stood right in front of her. 

He pulled his t-shirt over his head, quickly dropping it on the floor and pulling down his jeans zipper and removing his trousers. He wore tight white underwear which showed that his cock was already hardening. Britta could help but look at it, before tearing her eyes away to look into Christian's. 

He looked back at her, his eyes questioning whether she wanted this or not. She nodded at him, stepping forward so that their bodies touched, her naked breasts pressing into Christian's chest before her lips met his and their tongues entwined, tasting each other. She felt his cock harden as his hands moved to her breasts and being rubbing, pinching at her nipples.

He pulled his head back and lifted her at the waist so that she wrapped her legs around his and he could suck on her nipples, taking little nibbles as her carried her to the bedroom. She tangled her fingers in his hair, leaning her head back to enjoy the thrill before he laid her lightly on the bed and straddled over the top of her.

He pressed his body against hers again, his hands moving down to his boxers, to remove them. He pressed his lips hard against hers, his tongue separating them and running along her teeth. 

Britta ran her hands across Christian's chest, the muscles strong and taut. She moved them down a little further, feeling the ripples of a hard worked six pack before she felt the light fuzz of the hair which led to his crotch. She finally found his cock, hard and slick with pre-come.

She took in her hand, rubbing it and running her fingers along, gently tickling at his balls each time she reached them, looking into his eyes as they glazed over at here touch.

His hands moved up her legs, running up her thighs towards her slit. He gently pressed one in, causing her to gasp at the touch. He moved his face down and kissed her, slowly adding another finger and curling it inside her, making her squirm with delight.

She pulled away from his kiss to take a sharp intake of breath and he pushed his crotch hard into her hands, adding another finger as he did so.

"Fuck," Britta cried out, lifting her hips so his fingers pushed further in, making her want to scream. "Fuck me."

\---

By the time Mark and Fernando had finished the washing up, the air was clear and their friendship seemed back in tact. They cleaned the kitchen and put the crockery back were it belonged and headed out to grab their coats and head home.

"How do you live with this weather?" Fernando asked as they pulled their coats on and wrapped scarves around their necks, "Australia is warmer than Spain, si?"

Mark laughed, pulling gloves onto his hands and finally putting a wooly hat over her head and ears.

"You get used to it," Mark replied, "Although working with hot drinks is a good idea."

He grinned as he stepped towards the door and tried to push it open. It wouldn't move. He pushed harder, using his whole body against it, but it still wouldn't move.

"Give us a hand, mate," he said, trying to push the door again.

Fernando laughed and took the door handle and pushed forward. It still didn't move. He wiped the condensation from the window and peered outside. The view outside covered in white.

"I think we are snowed in, si?" Fernando said, wiping at the glass again, "What will we do?"

Mark wiped a circle in the window so that he could see outside, confirming that the snow was at least knee high and preventing the door from opening.

"I guess we'll just have to drink tea and sleep on the sofa's in here, mate," he said, shrugging as he turned back into the shop grinning at Fernando, "Might have to snuggle up to keep warm though."


	15. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the morning after the last chapter and everyone is slowly waking up...

Kimi woke first the next morning, tangled in the sheets on Sebastian's bed while the German snored delicately neck to him. He rolled over and propped himself up on one arm to watch his boyfriend sleep beside him. It was early, barely even six in the morning, so he had plenty of time before he had to leave for his first lecture.

He watched as Sebastian's chest rose and fell, the light layer of hair bristling as the air from his breath rushed across them. Kimi had never woken before Sebastian before, and seeing the angelic sight that laid next to him, he regretted his love affair with sleep and long lie-ins.

He desperately wanted to lean over and kiss the man that lay next to him, but he knew that he'd end up waking Sebastian, and after the effort he'd put in last night he deserved to sleep a little longer.

Kimi slid out from under the sheets, collecting Sebastian's dressing gown from the floor and wrapping it around himself before heading down the stairs to the kitchen. 

He was familiar with the kitchen where their relationship had first started now, and he moved around quickly making coffee and croissants, which he carried carefully back up the stairs and into the bedroom.

He placed the mugs and plates on the bedside table before leaning over and kissing Sebastian gently on the nose to wake him.

"I made breakfast," Kimi grinned as Sebastian looked back at him with a confused expression before rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Kimi slid back under the sheets as Sebastian pushed himself up into a seated position and was handed a plate and a hot mug of coffee.

"I could get used to this," Sebastian croaked as he rested his head on Kimi's shoulder and nibbled at the end of the croissant.

\---

Fernando rolled over on the sofa and opened his eyes, immediately feeling the cold despite sleeping in his coat. The face in front of him caused him to jump slightly before his brain kicked in and he remembered where he was.

Marks arms were wrapped around him, shivering slightly in the cold air of the cafe as he slept. He was glad of the warmth, despite the awkwardness that it would cause following the conversation yesterday. It had been Mark who pointed out to Fernando that they'd be cold if they didn't huddle together, and Fernando had ended up agreeing, mostly because he was cold before they'd even tried to sleep.

He laughed to himself at the position they'd ended up in, and the movement caused Mark to stir.

"Wakey, wakey," Fernando said as Mark lifted the arm from off his chest and rubbed his eyes.

When he opened them properly he glanced at Fernando as though unsure whether he was still dreaming, before trying to shuffle away in shock and falling off the edge of the sofa.

Fernando let out a deep booming laugh that woke them both up properly. Mark lifted himself up on his arms and grinned back up at the Spaniard whose eyes were filling with tears of laughter.

"Shut up, mate. You're so fat you take up the whole sofa," Mark quipped, grinning as he struggled to his feet.

Fernando laughed again, sliding his feet off the sofa.

"This is all muscle I'll have you know," he said, turning a stretch into a muscle flex that was lost in the thickness of his winter coat.

Mark turned towards the cafe door and looked outside the window, pushing the handle and shaking the door in an attempt to free it. 

"Still stuck," he confirmed, shrugging as he walked back towards the kitchen area, "I'll make breakfast."

Fernando watched his friend flick the switch on the coffee machine and head into the back room before turning his gaze to what lay outside the window. The snow was still piled high against the cafe walls and it was turning to ice at the top. It had stopped snowing though, so it couldn't get any worse. 

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up his contacts, looking through the numbers to see if there was anyone that could come and dig them out.

\---

Britta was laid in bed awake. She'd woken up early, after only a few hours of sleep, and found herself completely naked and entangled in Christian's limbs. She'd smiled at first, remembering the pleasure and the fun they'd had well into the early hours of the morning, but after a while the happiness wore off and she began to worry.

She untangled herself and slid into a seated position, pulling the sheets up to her chin so she didn't get cold. Her mind was racing about whether there were rules against what they'd done. She was old enough, it wasn't illegal for her to have sex, but he was a lecturer and she was a student at the college he lectured at. Was he allowed to fuck students that weren't on his course?

While she had been thinking, Christian rolled over in his sleep and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on her stomach and snoring lightly, the breath tickling her hip. She smiled again, moving her hand to stroke his hair as she watched him sleep. Maybe they'd just keep it a secret. Nobody needed to know. Maybe this was just a one-night stand for him, anyway.

She rested her head on the wall, her fingers still playing with the lecturers hair and began to drop off to sleep again but was woken by a loud buzzing followed by the intro to _The Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life_.

Britta had to bite back a giggle as Christian woke up and groped around for his phone, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. He pulled the phone from the bedside table and held it in front of him, squinting at the unknown number that was on the screen.

Swiping his thumb, he answered the call and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello," he croaked, rubbing his forehead, before rolling over and noticing Britta for the first time.

He gave her a startled look, that quickly turned into a grin of remembrance, before his hand slid under the sheets and between her thighs again, his eyes showing that he wasn't listening to the caller on the phone that he still had pressed to his ear.

She shoved her fist into her mouth so she didn't squeal and he pulled the sheet away from her with his teeth, leaning down to kiss her breasts and lick at her nipples. 

Britta could hear the voice on the phone chatting away, but Christian wasn't replying. His mouth was slowly working it's way down Britta's torso as she squirmed, trying not to make a noise.

"Are you there, professor?" Britta heard the voice on the phone speak louder and she suddenly realised who it was, batting Christian's head with her hand to make him stop.

She glared at him, pointing to the phone to remind him about it.

He rolled his eyes, sitting up properly in bed and switching the phone to his other ear so that he could take Britta's hand and guide it down towards his hardening cock. She raised her eye brow at him and nodded back at the phone.

"Urgh," Christian groaned as Britta removed her hands from beneath the sheets and folded her arms, mouthing 'Not until you've finished the call'.

"Alright, Fernando," he said into the phone, "What's up?"

He paused while the Spaniard on the other end of the line spoke, and when he finished, Christian laughed.

"Alright, mate. I'll be there as soon as I can. You enjoy your breakfast," he said and hung up before turning back to Britta, "Fernando and Mark have been trapped inside the cafe all night. They want digging out."

He laughed and swung his hips over Britta, discarding the bed sheets and straddling over her.

"Now can we get back to business?"


	16. Snow Rest For The Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christian and Britta leave to rescue Fernando and Mark, while Sebastian is dragged into college annoyingly early by Kimi.

It was nearly eight in the morning by the time Christian had prized himself away from Britta and they'd both had showers and put clothing on. They quickly donned their coats and scarves and headed out to the lecturer's car to - finally - rescue Fernando and Mark.

The car was buried under the snow and Britta couldn't help herself but to scoop up a handful and throw it over the roof at Christian. It hit him square in the forehead and she buckled over laughing as the snow clung to his hair and dripped from his face.

"I'm gonna get you for that," he said, grabbing a handful of snow from the top of the wing mirror and running around to her side of the car.

She squealed and raced around the back of the car, trying to avoid the snow, but Christian was too fast and the snowball hit the back of her hair and exploded down the neck of her scarf. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground, kicking wildly as she laughed until she couldn't breath. She tried to grab some snow from the roof of the car, but Christian carried her to the passenger seat door and placed her inside, kissing her on the nose and locking her in while he cleared the snow from the vehicle himself.

By half past eight, Christian was starting to worry about being late for work but the engine finally roared into life and the snow was cleared enough for them drive, allowing them to head into town and over to _Katerina's_.

They ran, sliding and stumbling in the thick snow, from the car park to the high street. Christian carried a travel shovel he kept in the car for emergencies such as this and thankfully, within minutes of reaching the cafe, they had dug the door free and were offered piping hot teas by Mark.

By this time, Christian had given up hope of making his first lecture of the morning and emailed the class from his phone to say it was cancelled. Instead, he bought Britta breakfast, which Mark disappeared into the back room to make.

Fernando joined them at their table and eyed the pair suspiciously. Britta had been careful not to make contact with Christian or say anything that would make it obvious what had happened, but under Fernando's gaze she realised that the fact she was there with him was questionable enough.

"So, bellezza, how come you are with Christian, eh?" he asked, as Mark placed a plate of toast and jams before them, "Is a bit strange, si?"

Britta tried to hide the flush behind a sip of her tea and was thankful when Christian jumped in a with a reply.

"The snow was really bad when we headed out last night," he said, between swallows of toast, "So I ended up crashing at Britta's rather than driving back home. It was very kind of her to let me stay. I'm glad we didn't stay here much longer or we'd all have been stuck."

"Hey. The more the merrier here, mate," Mark grinned as he slapped Cristian on the shoulder.

Britta almost choked on her toast at the thought of being stuck with both Christian _and_ Fernando over night but she couldn't help but notice the glint in Mark's eyes as he spoke to Christian. She couldn't help but wonder if, between the four of them, their desires could get any more tangled and messed up.

Once breakfast was finished, Mark took their plates away and made them some coffee's to-go. Britta was thankful of the warmth to wrap her fingers around as they left the cafe and walked back to Christian's car. Fernando had joined them, having a lecture later that morning which, according to what he told Mark, was very important he attended despite Christian saying he would send him the notes on if he wanted to go home and get some proper rest.

"So, are you doing anything tonight, bellezza?" Fernando asked as they climbed into the car, "We could have a team night out at the union, si?"

"It's Britta, not bellezza," she replied, aware of the Spanish compliment but annoyed by his insistence at using it so often.

Christian had to stifle a laugh.

"I'll see what Seb and Kimi are up to. You could invite Mark. I'll invite Heikki too, he likes a good night out. What about you, Chri... Professor Horner?" she asked, feeling daft at the formality.

"Student Union isn't really my scene," he said, "But you kids have fun."

Britta had to stop herself from snapping back at being referred to as a kid, but she knew it would only pose more questions for Fernando. She sat back in her chair, quietly enduring the rest of the drive to college as she text Seb and Heikki to make arrangements for that evening.

\---

"Kimi it's not even eight o'clock yet," Sebastian said, pulling the sleeves of his coat down over his gloves as the Finn stood impatiently by the door, "Your lecture isn't until ten. What's the rush?"

"Just hurry up," Kimi replied, a wicked glint in his eyes as he smiled at the fluster Sebastian was getting himself in, "You'll see soon enough."

They left the house and locked the door behind them, both aware that the walk to college would take them longer in the snow. It wouldn't take them two hours though, Sebastian was certain of that, and he had no desire to be in college earlier than he needed to be. His first lecture wasn't until twelve, he'd already have to sit around waiting once Kimi disappeared for his lecture.

The pair hopped and jumped through the snow, slipping and sliding on icy patches and clutching onto one another to stop themselves falling. Sebastian was panting and exhausted by the time they reached the campus.

"We should have just stayed in bed," he wheezed, glad that the pathways at the college had been gritted so he could walk normally, "This is way too much effort."

Kimi just smiled and walked ahead of him, holding his hand out for Sebastian to take. They walked in silence across the campus, their breaths steaming before their faces and mingling together as the wind caught them. It was still quiet, early even on a day with good weather, and so they made their way quickly to the engineering building.

Kimi led Sebastian down a corridor that ran past several of the lecturers offices, all of which were closed and locked. Sebastian spotted Professor Horner's office, which was also locked, before Kimi stopped and opened a cupboard door.

"Quick, in there," he said, giving Sebastian a gentle shove, the wicked glint returning as his eyes blackened with lust.


	17. In Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christian, Britta and Fernando get a surprise whilst in the lecturer's office and Kimi's place on the competition team might not be as secure as he thought it was.

Britta wasn't sure why she'd followed Christian and Fernando into the Engineering Department but she was now walking between them along the corridor that led to the lecturers office. Her first lecture that day was only half an hour away but she'd walked too far into the building to turn around and say goodbye without it looking weird, so she waited for Christian to unlock his office and followed Fernando inside.

The office was smaller than she'd expected and a lot tidier than her art tutors office. There were bookshelves behind the desk filled with huge books that had titles Britta didn't understand and a small sofa ran along one wall for visitors to relax on. Christian's desk was neat and tidy, a timetable and a notepad on the edge, beside a stack of papers that were graded with red pen.

Britta dropped herself heavily onto the sofa while Fernando began to flick through the pile of papers, searching for his name in the top corner. 

"You did well on this assignment, Fernando," Christian said, dropping his bag underneath the desk and sitting down in his chair, "Top of the class."

Britta noticed Fernando blush, something she never expected to see from the Spaniard. He seemed so confident in his advances, so why would he be embarrassed about getting a good grade?

"Si, I worked hard on it, professor," he said, finally finding his paper and sliding it out of the pile, "My father wants me to get good grades."

He sat beside Britta, flicking through the notes that Christian had scribbled in the margins. She noticed that there was a score of 92 on the front sheet - if that was percent Fernando must be a genius - and that most of the notes were comments of praise.

"We can talk through any questions if you like," Christian said, "We've got a while before my next lecture starts. There's not a lot you can do to improve really. Mostly just grammatical mistakes, really."

Fernando closed the paper and moved over to Christian's desk, taking the chair opposite him. Britta climbed to her feet and was about to begin making excuses when a clattering of metal broke from behind where she had sat and caused the three of them to jump.

"Fuck Seb, everyone in the building will have heard that," came the muffled sound of Kimi's voice through the wall.

\--

Sebastian was leaning forward, his hands against the back wall of the cupboard, crammed between the shelves of tools and bits and pieces that he vaguely recognised from his father's garage. His jeans and boxers were around his ankles and Kimi's hand was on the back of his neck, pushing forward so that he was bent at the hips.

Kimi's other hand was reaching between Sebastian's legs, his long fingers reaching up inside him and taunting his prostrate. They curled inside him and Sebastian bent further forward, groaning with pleasure, his hands spasming uncontrollably and colliding with some empty paint cans that contained nuts and bolts.

The cans fell to the floor, the contents shattering across the cupboard and making a _lot_ of noise.

"Fuck Seb, everyone in the building will have heard that," Kimi laughed as Sebastian whimpered at his touch.

He kept his fingers inside Sebastian's loosening hole, as the German tilted his head back, exposing his neck, and breathed another sigh of pleasure. Kimi kissed along Sebastian's collar bone, and ran his free hand around the front of his boyfriend, grasping his firm cock and beginning to pump his hand up and down.

The door behind them rattled in the frame, locked from the inside, and caused them both to jump.

"You've got thirty seconds to get out here and explain what the _hell_ you're doing or I'll go to the principle," Christian shouted from the other side of the door.

\--

Christian hammered on the cupboard door with his fist. His face was bright red, but Britta couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or anger. From the corridor they could hear every moan that Sebastian was giving and she was reminded of the time in the changing rooms at the _Wrangler_ store. Fernando stood beside her grinning, his paper still clutched in his hands.

"You've got thirty seconds to get out here and explain what the _hell_ you're doing or I'll go to the principle," Christian shouted, kicking the bottom of the door with his foot.

He stepped away from the door and folded his arms. They heard whispered voices inside the cupboard and things being bumped as the occupants hurried to dress themselves. There was the sound of metal rolling along concrete before eventually the door unlocked and Kimi stepped through the opening, wiping his hands on his jeans and nodding at the lecturer. 

"Get in my office now," Christian growled as the Finn tried to walk away as though nothing was wrong.

Sebastian crept out of the cupboard, his hair a disheveled mess and his face sweat covered and flushed. He noticed Britta stood between Fernando and Christian and his face changed from embarrassment to curiosity as he gave her a look that questioned why she was there. She did her best to signal with her eyes that she would explain later, but Christian slammed his office door behind the two men, leaving her and Fernando outside.

"I can explain," Kimi started as Sebastian stood next to him, staring at the floor, the bulge still visible through his jeans, "I can hon..."

"I really don't want to hear whatever excuse you have for... for _that_ ," Christian said, waving his hands in dismissal of the subject as he interrupted Kimi's excuses, "Just never let it happen again. I _will_ kick you off the competition team if it happens again."

Christian couldn't look either of the students in the eye as he was speaking, and he was trying to avoid staring at the hard-on that was still protruding through Sebastian's trousers. He was suddenly very aware of how young and stupid the students at the college were and began to wonder where that put him, having been sleeping with one just a few hours before.

"I know that fresh, young love is exciting," he continued, trying to loosen his collar, "but you need to calm it down in public boys. Keep things like that at home."

Sebastian was flushing furiously, and Kimi grinned at him when he looked up to see whether he was expected to respond or not. The Finn gave a silent shrug of laughter before turning his gaze back to Christian.

"So, how come you and Fernando are both wearing the same clothes as yesterday?" he asked, drawing the subject away from himself with the observation he had made in the corridor, "Spend the night away from home?"

"That's none of your business, Mr Raikkonen," Christian replied curtly, his neck flushing where he'd undone a button of his shirt, "Frankly you should be more concerned about your grade in this paper."

Christian diverted the subject away from his clothing as Kimi looked across at the nervous Sebastian and winked. The lecturer was rummaging through the pile of assignments on his desk and eventually found one with Kimi's name on, beside a number 41. The page was covered in red pen mark ups and large crosses.

"This just isn't good enough, Kimi," Christian said, throwing the paper onto the desk in front of the Finn, thankful that this gave him the upper hand, "You need to buck up or I'll have to pick a new engineer for the team. I suggest you spend a little less time... with your boyfriend and more time doing your homework."

The smirk had disappeared from Kimi's face now. Sebastian was watching his boyfriend to see his reaction, but his face gave nothing away. He was staring at the paper in front of him with a blank expression, his eyes darting through the comments. Eventually he reached the bottom of the page and placed the paper back on the desk.

"Sebastian's father owns Vetteri Motors," Kimi said calmly, as though he'd forgotten the assignment already, "They might be able to sponsor the car for the competition."

Christian stared at Kimi, wondering whether he was saying this to get out of trouble or because it was something he had actually seriously thought about. The Finn gave a crooked smile before turning to Sebastian, who nodded. Christian knew that they needed a sponsor, but was Kimi only screwing this art student because of sponsorship for the team?

"It's true," Sebastian said, "I could ask him if you like? I'm sure he'd want to help."

"I think it's probably best if you can give me his details and I will contact him on behalf of the team," Christian said, jotting down the company name on his notepad and sliding it towards Sebastian, "Give me an address and the phone number and I'll see what I can do."

Sebastian bent forward and scrawled a number onto the sheet and added a street name below it. Christian had been past the Vetteri Motors dealers on several occasions but never in to it. The cars they made were far to expensive for the money he made, despite working on the side as a mechanic, but he knew they were worth every penny and if they'd donate some parts the team could create an engine that would be unbeatable.

"You can go," Christian said to Sebastian, realising the student wasn't really anything to do with him, "I'll be in touch with your Father. Kimi, clean up the mess you made in the cupboard next door and I'll see you in lectures this afternoon. You have a week to resubmit this essay. If you don't get higher than sixty percent you're banned from the team and Fernando will take your place as engineer."

Sebastian shuffled out of the room quietly as Kimi snatched the assignment from the desk and storm out, slamming the office door behind him. Britta waited outside, Fernando long gone.

"I'll see you later," Kimi said, opening the cupboard door and turning the light on to survey the damage Sebastian had caused.

Sebastian watched him pick a few of the bolts up before linking his arm through Britta's and guiding her away. He wasn't sure why Kimi had changed the subject to his father. He knew that Kimi wanted a good grade in engineering and that taking part in the competition would look good on his CV, but was he only sticking around because of Sebastian's father? What if his father refused to sponsor the team?

He made a mental note to persuade his father that the sponsorship would be a good idea. If he told him about his involvement he was sure that he would be easy to persuade. Surely his father would want to help if it was something that Sebastian was involved in. And that way he'd be able to stay closer to Kimi, and Kimi would still do all those things that made him feel so good.

Britta glance at him nervously, noticing the thoughtful look that furrowed his brow turn into a flush of excitement. She hoped, when he remembered that she was there, he wouldn't question why she had been in the engineering department. 

As if reading her thoughts, Sebastian turned toward her before glancing back down the corridor. The familiar cheeky grin spread across his face.

"Don't even ask," he said, giggling, "I need to get outside in the cold."


	18. In The Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team head for a night out in the SU bar, but none of them last long before heading home.

Britta sat at a table in the bar with her phone in her hand. She'd been staring at it for what seemed like hours, a blank text message opened. When she'd first started it, she'd planned to persuade Christian to come and join them, but no matter how she'd worded it, it sounded desperate and needy and she didn't want to come across as clingy, if he just wanted fun and sex.

"You are going to type a text or no?" Fernando asked, leaning over and glancing down at her phone with a knowing grin on his face.

She pressed the button to turn the screen of and placed her phone on the table, smiling at the Spaniard as she picked up her glass and began to suck the straw. The liquid in the glass was mostly just melted ice cube, but she couldn't be bothered to fight the crowds to the bar for a fresh drink.

"I might go, to be honest," she said, glancing around the room to see where Kimi and Sebastian were.

They'd disappeared to the dance floor some time ago, Heikki following them and dragging and unimpressed Mark with him. Britta had been left with Fernando, ignoring him to stare at her phone in hope of inspiration to send something to Christian. Fernando had initially tried to make conversation but stopped when she began staring frustratedly at her phone.

"I could walk you home, si?" Fernando said, "You can even ignore me the whole way. I will just make sure you are safe."

Britta winced slightly as she realised how cruel she'd been to ignore the Spaniard. Perhaps he was just friendly and kind, a proper gentleman. Perhaps he even figured out what had happened between Christian and herself and been put off her. At least he'd kept it quiet if he had worked it out - she hoped it would stay that way.

She got to her feet and pulled her cardigan over her shoulders.

"OK," she said, "Let's go."

They walked out into the cold night and Britta wrapped her arms around herself to try to find some warmth. She started walking along the path that led to the main road when she felt warmth surround her shoulders and back and discovered that Fernando had removed his jacket to wrap around her.

"Is better?" he asked as she glanced at him, tucking the jacket around her tightly so that the cold air couldn't get through the opening.

"Yes, thank you," she replied, smiling, "Aren't you cold now?"

"A little. I'll be fine."

Fernando rubbed at his bare arms, the pale white shirt he was wearing almost see-through it was so thin. Britta adjusted her step so that she was walking slightly nearer to him and slid her arm through one of his jacket sleeves so she could wrap it around his waist. He smiled down at her and slid his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him and rubbing her shoulder in thanks.

"You really are feeling warmer," he grinned.

\-----

Sebastian glared across at Mark who was trying, and failing, to avoid Heikki grinding on him. Kimi, who didn't really enjoy dancing, was stood slightly to the side of them, glancing around the room as though looking for some way to escape. Sebastian stepped closer to him and leaned forward to speak.

"I like how you used my father and your idea for him to sponsor the team to get you of trouble earlier," Sebastian shouted into Kimi's ear, before downing the remainder of his JD and coke and placing the glass on the ledge that surrounded the dance floor.

Kimi shrugged, wrapping his arm around Sebastian's neck as he continued looking around.

"The only thing Christian cares about is that competition," Kimi replied, "I knew it would work."

"And what about you?" Sebastian ask, grabbing Kimi's jaw and pulling his face around to look at him, "What do you care about?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kimi asked, half laughing.

Sebastian shrugged Kimi's arm from his shoulder and was about to ask whether he cared about him, when Mark butted in.

"Ooh wrong answer there mate," he said to Kimi, winking playfully and slapping him on the back.

Sebastian spun at him, shoving him into the wall away from Kimi.

"You keep the fuck out of this Mark," he growled, "Keep your filthy fucking hands off my boyfriend. He doesn't want you. Nobody wants you here."

Heikkihad taken a step back from Mark and he stood gaping between the pair. Mark's face flashed from shock to anger and he pushed himself off the wall and marched back towards Sebastian.

"Fuck you, Sebastian," he said, his face mere inches from the German's, "You don't have a fucking clue."

The Australian stalked away, leaving Sebastian glaring after him. Heikki, who seemed to have been rendered speechless for once, glanced one last time between Sebastian and Mark, before chasing after the latter as he stormed off the dance floor.

"What the fuck was that about, Seb?" Kimi asked after Mark was out of sight, "What's wrong with you tonight? Come on, lets have another drink and maybe we could go to the toilets..."

Kimi let his voice trail off, his eyes glittering under the UV lights of the dance floor.

"I want to go home," Sebastian replied, bluntly, "Take me home, now."

He spun on his heels and walked toward the exit, leaving Kimi no choice but to follow.

\---

"Hey, Wait!" Heikki shouted as he burst through the entrance doors to the Student Union, chasing Mark into the cold night air, "Mark, wait!"

The Australian turned around, stopping in the middle of the pathway for Heikki to catch up. Heikki was surprised to see that he had tears streaming down his face, which no longer looked angry. He looked hurt now

"Are you OK?" Heikki asked, realising how stupid it sounded as soon as it left his lips.

"I'll be fine," Mark sniffed, continuing to walk along the path now that Heikki had caught up, "I just need to go home and sober up. I shouldn't have said anything. I was stupid."

"You only made a joke," Heikki said, wrapping an arm around Mark, unsure as to how he would react, but feeling like he should comfort him, "I don't know why Sebastian behaved like that."

Mark moved into Heikki's arm a little so their bodies were almost touching, and the Finn rubbed circles into his back as he sniffed back more tears.

"I do," he replied eventually.

Heikki remained silent for a moment as Mark wiped the tears from his cheeks.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, not sure he could cope with not knowing, but also feeling strangely protective of the Australian.

Mark nodded, turning to face Heikki and rubbing his arm as he smiled sadly.

"Do you want to come back to mine for coffee or something?" he asked, "It might feel better to get it all off my chest."


	19. The Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **PLEASE NOTE I HAVE UPDATED THE WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER.**
> 
>  
> 
> Sebastian is filled with rage and snaps at Kimi, who is just trying to help, and Mark spills his heart out to Heikki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please check the updated warnings.

Sebastian and Kimi didn't speak the entire walk back to the house. Kimi was too scared to talk, afraid of having his head bitten off again, and Sebastian was huffing clouds of angry condensation into the night, his rage still fresh.

They entered the house in silence and Kimi followed him into the kitchen, waiting for Sebastian's anger to burst out and the ranting begin.

It was the first time that Kimi had come into Sebastian's house and not immediately stripped the German and carried him to bed. He had contemplated it as the door opened, but he thought better of it, imaging a scenario where Sebastian was so angry he tore his cock right off. He decided it was best to grin and bear whatever Sebastian was so angry about.

Sebastian flicked the coffee machine on and grabbed two mugs, indicating for Kimi to sit down. He made the coffees and placed one in front of the Finn, sitting down opposite him and sighing as he stirred the liquid aimlessly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kimi asked, apprehensively.

"No," Sebastian replied, "Mark's a twat. That's all there is to say."

Kimi was about to remark that he thought the Australian was actually a fairly decent guy, before stalling himself when he remembered that was probably the cause of the problem.  
"I don't fancy him you know," he said instead, "He's too tall, dark and handsome for my liking."

Kimi grinned, hoping Sebastian would see the funny side, but instead he just glared angrily at his coffee mug.

"He used to work for my Dad. At the garage," Sebastian said angrily, not looking up, "Until my Dad caught him fucking one of the engineers. _My_ true love. In the garage. Dad sacked them both. I told him just to sack Mark, that Rocky was innocent, but Dad told me to stop being such a child. He wouldn't even listen. I never saw Rocky again. Never saw Mark until he started working at _Katerina's_. He's probably only here to ruin my fucking life again."

Sebastian spat the words out as Kimi listened.

"Your 'true love'?" Kimi asked once it was clear he was finished, "How old were you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Sebastian snapped, standing and leaving the room, his coffee abandoned on the table, "Let yourself out. I want to be alone."

Kimi stared at his coffee mug as Sebastian stomped up the stairs, wondering whether he should call Britta or just follow Sebastian himself. Sex always seemed to cheer Sebastian up, but Kimi had a feeling that wouldn't work tonight. Who the fuck even thought 'true love' existed? Mark was clearly infatuated with Fernando, so what was Sebastian so upset about? 

He downed the remainder of his coffee, placing both of the mugs in the sink and quietly slipped out of the door and began the walk to his own flat. He decided he'd question Sebastian about it when he seemed more cheerful. Just so long as he didn't go running back to this 'true love' and leave Kimi looking like a fool.

\-----

Mark unlocked the door to the flat above _Katerina's_ and let Heikki through before wiping his own feet on the doormat and following him inside.

"Would you like a tea?" Mark asked, having relaxed a little with company for the walk home.

"I'll make it," Heikki said, with a grin as he skipped through to the kitchenette at the other side of the one room flat, "It's all you seem to do."

Mark followed him into the kitchen with a smile and leaned on the sideboard, pointing out which cupboards held cups, tea bags and spoons until the tea was made and he guided Heikki to the sofa. He was glad that he was going to get this off his chest. He'd never told anyone and Heikki seemed like the happy-go-lucky type that wouldn't think any less of him.

"You really don't mind if I tell you?" he asked, "I know you're Sebastian's friend. I... It's not his fault really. I understand why he's angry."

Mark had the tea cup gripped between his hands, absorbing the warmth while he stared into the liquid that was still swirling from being stirred.

"It's OK," Heikki said, more intrigued than ever now, "I've never seen him that angry. It was quite scary."

Mark huffed a quiet laugh before finally dragging his eyes from the drink to look at Heikki.

"I've seen him a lot more angry than that," he began, "I used to work for his Dad. It was just a part time thing before I started college. I manned the phones in the garage. Seb worked there at weekends as well, though he was more of an errand boy to be honest. He had no interest in cars or mechanics or customer relations, he just wanted some easy money."

Mark took a sip of his tea and leaned back on the sofa. Heikki mimicked his actions, tucking his legs beneath him so he sat cross legged.

"There was this mechanic there. Older than both of us. He was probably mid twenties, we were only seventeen. He was good looking, muscular, but he was an dick. He had a girlfriend. I saw her a few times and she was always hiding her face behind sunglasses. She'd pick him up and he'd shout at her for parking wrong or being late. I knew what she was hidding behind the glasses."

Mark swallowed, knowing that the worst part of the story was yet to come. His hands began to shake a little as his nerves returned from the memory of what happened. He gripped the mug tighter, hoping that would help.

"Anyway, Sebastian had a massive crush on him. Always swooning around him, doing anything he said, you know?" Mark paused and Heikki nodded, knowing how infatuated Sebastian got with his crushes, "He'd always talk to me about how much he liked him. I didn't have the heart to tell him that this guy was an A class dick. I knew if he ever found out about the crush he'd eat Sebastian alive."

Mark shuffled on the sofa. He wasn't really sure he was feeling any better for saying this out loud, but he needed somebody to know the truth. He didn't want Sebastian's side of the story to make him look bad.

"One day I caught some of the other mechanics joking with this guy. Laughing because Sebastian never helped them as much as he did Rocky - that's his name. He got pissy with them and told them all to fuck off, but I could see the anger in his eyes. I saw him give Sebastian a filthy look the next time he came into the dealers so I had to do something. I couldn't let him beat Sebastian up over a stupid crush."

Mark paused and took a long drink of tea, emptying the cup before standing it lightly onto the place mat on the coffee table. He took a deep breath and released it slowly. Heikki smiled in what he hoped was a comforting way. He liked to know the details but this seemed to be getting a little deep and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to deal with the truth.

"Lunch break came and I collared the guy before he left the garage. I told him if he went anywhere near Sebastian I'd get him fired. I told him I knew what he did to his missus and that if he even touched a hair on Seb's head I'd kill him," he paused for breath, his eyes blanking over as he continued, "He picked me up by the throat and threw my against the wall. Asked me if I had a crush on Sebastian or on him. He had such a tight grip. I couldn't get free. He ripped my jeans down and slammed me onto a car bonnet, bending me over and holding my face against the metal so I couldn't get free while he tore my boxers off."

Tears started to fall from Mark's eyes as he spoke and Heikki reached out for one of his shaking hands, gripping it between his own and rubbing comforting circles with his thumb.

"He... He..." Mark gulped, staring at their hands unable to look Heikki in the eye, "He raped me. And Sebastian's Dad walked in half way through. He pulled the guy off me and told him to get out and never come back. Then he told me to clean up. He said I had to leave. Told me not to tell anyone 'cause it'd make him look bad. That's when Sebastian came in. He saw us both pulling our pants back on and got the wrong end of the stick. Rocky left and his Dad followed him out and Sebastian screamed and shouted at me for what seemed like forever."

Mark wiped the tears from his eyes with his shirt sleeve and began to mimick Sebastian.

"'How could you? I thought you were my friend. Is that why you always told me not to bother, 'cause you were fucking him at lunch times. You make me sick. I hope you rot. You're the biggest cunt I ever met.'" he half laughed as he said the words, "He wouldn't hear me out. Didn't see that I was shaking with fear, bleeding, bruised. I heard him begging his Dad to let Rocky come back when I was clearing my desk. He told him just to sack me, that it was all my fault. His Dad didn't even tell him the truth. He just said we both had to go, something about gross misconduct. So I went. I never told anybody. I never saw Rocky again. I never saw Sebastian again until recently."

Mark looked up at Heikki, expecting him to laugh in his face, but the Finn looked as upset as Mark felt. There were tears of sadness in his eyes and Mark couldn't help but feel bad for burdening him with his problems. He grabbed Heikki in his arms and pulled him into a comforting hug.

"I'm sorry," he said, tears falling again, "I shouldn't have loaded you with all this. I'm so sorry."

He rubbed Heikki's back, half comforting himself with the motion, feeling the weight lifting from his shoulders having spoken about it, but knowing that half of that load was now weighing on Heikki. Heikki's hand moved to his hair and he felt him stroking gently before he rested his head on top of Mark's. He felt tear drops fall into his hair and clung on tighter, not wanting Heikki to feel the way he did.

"You don't need to be sorry, Mark," Heikki whispered, eventually, "What that guy did. What Sebastian's Dad did. It's all wrong. You needed help not to be abandoned and hated. Please tell me you got help?"

Mark pushed away from Heikki, holding him at arms length as they stared at one another, tears streaming down both of their cheeks.

"I moved out of town for a bit," Mark said, shuffling his legs to get comfortable, "That's where I met Fernando. I stayed away for a few years and got to know him. He cheered me up. I grew up, I got over it in my own way. I did a little search up on the guy before I moved back and found out he'd been locked up for GBH. That made me feel a lot better. Probably should have looked up where Sebastian was though. Didn't expect I'd end up living and working at his favourite coffee store."

Mark laughed sadly and Heikki smiled, pulling him into a hug so that Mark's head was resting on his chest. He didn't really know what to say. He doubted anything he said would make Mark feel better and he knew it wouldn't change what happened. He was glad that Mark had confided in him though. It made him feel like he had a friend, even if they barely knew each other before this.

They stayed on the sofa in silence for some time, Heikki gently stroking Mark's hair and listening to his breathing between sniffles until they both fell asleep.


	20. Working  Weekends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The weekend arrives and Kimi finally settles down to his assignment, Britta and Sebastian head into the art studio to work on their projects and Fernando and Christian play around with the competition cars engine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Note:** Warnings added for the last chapter only apply to that chapter. This one is safe and hopefully the rest of the story should be. Although I'll touch on the last chapter, it will more relate to emotions moving forward etc. :)

When Mark went down to open the cafe doors the Saturday following his confession to Heikki, the last person he expected to see waiting to be let in was Kimi Raikkonen. He barely knew the guy, but he braced himself for an onslaught of hatred, assuming that Sebastian had told his boyfriend the story from his perspective.

He unlocked the door and opened it to let the Finn in, the cold air refreshing him as Kimi stamped the snow from his boots and hung his coat on the hanger by the door.

"What can I get you, mate," Mark asked nervously, hoping to keep the conversation civil.

"Can I get a pot of coffee and all of the sugary cakes," Kimi replied, selecting a table and pulling his laptop from his bag, "I'm going to need all the energy I can get if I'm going to re-do this bloody essay to keep on the team."

Mark paused, gaping as the Finn turned his laptop on and furrowed his brow in concentration. Perhaps he hadn't come to shout at Mark after all, though it was odd that he'd come and study in the cafe when there was a perfectly good library at the college.

"Sure," Mark replied, "Coming up. Do you want the wifi password? It's mine from the flat, but if you need it..."

"Please," Kimi replied, "If you don't mind. I came here to avoid Sebastian to be honest. Kinda figured this was the last place he would come."

Kimi grinned at Mark, finally confirming that he wasn't here to shout at the Australian. Mark jotted the wifi password down on a sheet from his notepad and left it on the table while he went to fulfil Kimi's order, wondering exactly what Sebastian had told the Finn to make him want to avoid him.

Mark piled a plate with donuts and tablet as the hot water boiled for coffee. Once it was ready, he placed it on a tray and carried it over to Kimi's table. He was about to say that if he needed refills, just to shout, when Kimi's phone began to buzz.

"Hello?" Kimi answered as Mark backed away and tried to make himself look busy behind the counter.

"Speaking," Kimi continued, pausing with a confused look on his face, "OK. When will that be?"

Mark had no idea who was on the other end of the line, but Kimi seemed to perk up a little as they were speaking.

"And how much would I get for it? What about flights?" he asked, scribbling some notes on the back of the piece of paper Mark had given him before whistling and laughing.

"Sure, I'll take it. See you on Monday."

Kimi ended the call with a grin on his face, closing his laptop and placing it in his bag.

"Change of plan, Mark," he said as he collected his coat, "I need to go pack. See you later!"

He left the shop without paying, throwing his rucksack over his back and jogging through the snow in the direction of the car park. Mark watched until he was out of sight before heading back to the table to collect the untouched order. 

Beside the tray was the note Kimi had been making, forgotten in his haste. It simply read "8am Mon - Altitude Photo Studios."

\-----

Sebastian had persuaded Britta to come into the Art studio over the weekend so that he could work on his project. Britta was already well ahead but decided to keep her friend company, having noticed he seemed down ever since their night out. 

Although they both sat with their projects spread around them, neither were working. Both of them were sat staring at their phones as though waiting for them to ring. They'd both started typing messages on several occasaions but then deleted the text and sat tapping their fingers on the table in thought. 

The door to the studio creaked open while they were both lost in thought, causing them to jump.

"Hi Britta," Heikki squealed as he walked into the room, "Thought you might be here if you weren't at home."

He sat down beside Britta, planting a kiss on her cheek, and glanced at Sebastian to see whether he noticed he'd purposely ignored him.

"So what's up?" he asked, turning back to Britta, "Why are you staring at your phone like a lost puppy?"

Britta quickly dropped her phone and picked up a pen, trying to make it look less like she'd been sat staring all afternoon. Looking around her, she realised that all her pieces of paper were blank and it was obvious she'd done nothing. Her face flushed at being found out.

Heikki gasped, immediately knowing there was something more to the sulky staring than he'd originally realised.

"Is this about a _man_ , Britta," he asked, emphasising the word and grinning widely, "Tell me, tell me, tell me."

Britta's cheeks turned redder and she glanced at over at Sebastian hoping he would save her from the interrogation. He was still staring at his phone, probably not even noticing that Heikki had joined them.

"Yes," she sighed, "There was... someone. And... Stuff happened and then I haven't really heard from him since."

She slumped her shoulders and pouted at Heikki who cracked a laugh and slapped her on the shoulder.

"A one night stand," he said, "Everyone has them, get over it. What are you waiting for? Him to drop you a booty call?"

Britta laughed, knowing full well that if Christian text - or even if she text him - it would be just that. She didn't even know the guy. She doubted they'd have even spoken that evening if she hadn't fallen out of her towel.

"You _want_ a booty call?" Heikki laughed, finally getting Sebastian's attention, much to Britta's embarrassment, "Girl, just text him! Get it on!"

Britta flushed which caused Heikki to grin even more.

"Get it on with who?" Sebastian asked, grinning slyly.

"Nobody is talking to you, Sebastian," Heikki snapped, not even turning to look at him, "Go back to staring at your phone."

Britta gaped at Heikki, normally one to tell anyone who would listen any juicy gossip like this. Sebastian opened his mouth to reply but the shock of Heikki's reaction had stunned him wordless. He placed his phone beside his sketch pad and began to draw, angrily, filling the page with thick black lines of fury.

Britta shook herself to her senses and smiled at Heikki nervously.

"I should probably do some work," she said, pointing at the blank pages in front of her.

"Yea," Heikki replied, "And some texting, remember."

He rose to his feet and began to head back towards the door, turning to wink at Britta as he waved goodbye.

She had briefly considered sending Christian an invite for pleasure, shortly after Heikki had suggested it, but now her mind was full wondering what on Earth had happened between him and Sebastian.

\-----

Fernando was sat in Christian's garage, his hands and clothes covered with oil, admiring the work they'd managed to do on the cars engine. It was an old engine that Christian had acquired from a broken down car, but they were tinkering with it in preparation for the competitions car engine arriving. Using the same type of engine, they were able to play with this one until it was perfect and then set the real one up the same way.

Christian handed him a cup of tea and Fernando wiped his hands on his jeans before taking it from him. It was sweaty work, and the engine produced a lot of heat very quickly when they ran it, but his hands were cold so he was glad of the heat to wrap them around.

"You will really kick Kimi from the team if he doesn't improve his grades?" Fernando asked, not really sure why he cared, being as he'd been doing most of the engineering anyway.

"He's at college for grades, not for the competition," Christian said, sitting on the floor beside Fernando, "I'll not have him on the team if his grades don't improve. I don't want anyone to suggest that the competition is preventing him from getting higher scores, because we know that's not true."

Fernando laughed, knowing exactly why Kimi hadn't been doing so well in college lately.

"Will need another engineer if you kick him off the team, si?" Fernando said, knowing that Christian would suggest he took the position, "If I am driving the car who will make any quick changes if we need them?"

"Once the car is built we can get a pit crew together," Christian said, "There's plenty of lads in first and second year who will be up for that. Don't worry, your seat is safe."

Fernando smiled to himself. He enjoyed the engineering side, and it was nice to spend some time with a man who wasn't trying to get in his pants, but he was mainly involved for the chance of racing. He hoped that, come race day, they would have a good car and there would be scouts from motorsport teams in attendance. He knew he was getting a little bit old for getting into the racing business, but if he had a chance, he was going to take it.


	21. Wheres and Whys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi leaves and Sebastian doesn't know where he has gone, while Mark, Heikki and Fernando meet in the cafe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this has been a long time coming!

"I can't believe he never even came over to say goodbye," Sebastian moaned, slumped against his kitchen table while Britta filled the kettle and prepared the tea, "Just a short text ' _I have to go away for a while. Flight tonight, see you soon._ ' Not even a kiss."

Britta had heard it all before. Sebastian had been complaining all afternoon about it. He had very nearly jumped in his car and driven to the airport, but Britta had stopped him, knowing that it was unlikely they'd find Kimi even if they made it in time before he left.

"It's obviously something important," she said, stirring sugar into Sebastian's tea in hope that it would cheer him up, "I'm sure he wouldn't just up and leave if it wasn't."

Sebastian puffed his cheeks out, taking the mug that Britta offered him and clasping it between both hands to warm his palms.

"Do you think he's found somebody else?" he asked quietly.

Britta rolled her eyes, having been through this on the walk back to the flat.

"I think he's the kinda of guy who would be honest with you," she said for the ump-teenth time, "He'll be back, I'm sure."

Sebastian stared into his cup angrily. A part of him was annoyed and wanted to send back an angry, accusatory text but another part of him was worried that something urgent had happened and wanted to be there to comfort Kimi if he needed to. He'd not replied yet, not sure what to say.

"When he gets back, he better have a good excuse," he mumbled.

\-----

Mark was busily washing up when he heard the tinkle of the bell above the cafe door that signalled a customer had arrived. 

Wiping his hands on the front of his apron, he grabbed a notepad and entered the main room of the cafe to find Fernando and Heikki removing their coats.

Heikki wrapped Mark in a warm embrace, whispering in his ear to check thathe was OK before taking a chair opposite Fernando and ordering tea.

Mark busied himself preparing the tea, making a coffee for himself before joining the pair at the table and pulling a scrap of paper from the pocket on his apron.

"Kimi left this earlier," he said, placing the paper on the table with a frown, "I googled it while there were no customers in. It's a photography studio in America. He was in here doing his essay and suddenly he got a call, scribbled that down and rushed off."

Fernando took the paper between his fingers and read it.

"America?" he said, "Did he finish his essay?"

"I doubt it, he'd barely been in here five minutes," Mark shrugged, "Why would he get a call from a photography studio?"

"He's a model," Heikki said, sipping his tea, "His photo is in the window of _Wrangler_ , haven't you seen it?"

Mark shrugged again.

"Maybe he's got a modelling job out there," Heikki continued, "He has the face for it. Nice cheek bones. Though not as good as yours, Mark."

Mark blushed, a small smile playing on his lips as he avoided eye contact with Heikki. Fernando glanced between the pair, a bemused look on his face.

"Well lets hope he gets the essay in on time," Fernando said, "Or I will be the entire competition team at this rate."

Mark shrugged again, noticing the look on Fernando's face that seemed more excited by the prospect than worried about the work it would entail.

"Is that what you want?" Mark grinned, knowing that Fernando would be more proud of driving a car that he'd built himself, "Do you want him to fail so you get all the credit?"

Fernando spluttered.

"Well. I mean," he started, his cheeks flushing, "It wouldn't be a bad thing, no."

Mark grinned again, turning to roll his eyes at Heikki, who quickly looked away, his cheeks flushing as he buried his face in his cup of tea.

"What are you blushing about?" he asked, his grin widening.

Heikki turned even redder, his eyes darting around the room, everywhere but Mark.

"Nothing," he replied, "It's just nice to see you happy again, that's all."

Mark glanced at the table, knowing that Heikki now bore some of the weight of his problems. 

"Yea, I... I guess it was just the alcohol," he said quietly, "I'm OK."

"Maybe you should talk to Sebastian," Heikki said, lightly placing his hand on Mark's, "Don't you think he should know the truth?"

"He won't listen," Mark replied, pulling his hand away from Heikki's and lifting his coffee cup to his mouth, "He never does."

Heikki stared at his hand, wondering if he'd gone to far, but unable to stop himself from trying again.

"With Kimi gone, maybe Britta could persuade Sebastian to come and talk with you," he suggested, "You don't have to tell him the truth. Just tell him it was a misunderstanding. He has no right to be angry at you. If anything you did him a favour. I've known him long enough to know that it would have broken him if that had happened to him. He'd never have pulled through. And I'm sure he'd realise what an idiot he's been if he only knew the truth. Deep down he's a good person."

Heikki finally looked up at Mark's face and the smile was gone. He stared blankly at the table, his thumb rubbing up and down the handle of the coffee mug.

Fernando glanced between the pair with a furrowed brow. He knew that something had happened to Mark before they had met, but he'd never questioned him about it. He'd just been there as the friend he knew Mark needed, but this seemed deep. And what did Sebastian have to do with it?

Mark released a long sigh, pushing the chair back from the table and getting to his feet, taking the mug around the back of the counter and staring out the window. The snow was beginning to melt, though the temperature was still freezing, and icicles dripped onto the window ledge. 

Sebastian had been a good friend, he knew he was a kind, caring and innocent person - or at least at the time he had been. That was half the reason he'd tried to prove what a dick Rocky was. He knew it would destroy Sebastian if Rocky had said or done anything to hurt him.

Sometimes he regretted not making Sebastian listen to him back when it had all happened. Forcing him to stop and hear him out, rather than just walking away and not going back. Would that have made a difference? Would Sebastian have taken his side or agreed with his Dad and made him lie. 

"If Sebastian wants to talk, he can come to me," Mark said, heading into the back room, "I'm not chasing after him."


	22. Missing Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is progress in the competition, but Kimi is missing. Fernando can't work out what has happened between Sebastian and Mark and Britta decides to take life into her own hands.

Christian sat before the group at their regular table for the weekly meeting. The chair opposite him, between Fernando and Sebastian, was empty. 

He'd waited long enough for the Finnish student to arrive, allowing the other students to chatter amongst themselves while they ate their sandwiches and sipped hot drinks provided by Mark.

"No Kimi?" he asked eventually, stopping other conversations mid flow.

Everybody turned to Sebastian who shrugged, the annoyance at Kimi's quick departure clearly still bothering him.

"He's gone off somewhere," he said, "Just text to say he had a flight and that he'd 'see me soon'. Don't know where he's gone."

Christian sighed, leaning back in his chair as he dropped his pen onto the desk and ran his hands through his hair.

"He knows that his essay is due in, doesn't he?" he said, "He knows that he's off the team if he doesn't get a better grade?"

Sebastian nodded. 

The whole team were aware of the consequences of Kimi's failing grades and whilst Christian had assumed the drop had been because of Sebastian, he saw now that it might be something more - if Sebastian was the distraction, why was he at the meeting and Kimi AWOL?

Fernando and Heikki glanced at one another and both shot quick looks at Mark who was busily scrubbing at a spot on the counter, pretending not to listen. Sebastian must be clueless about where Kimi had gone, or surely he'd have explained to Professor Horner?

Neither of them spoke. It was just speculation and a quick google on Mark's part that had brought them to the conclusion that Kimi was in America at some photo studio. The slip he'd written could have meant anything - possibly even some place that wasn't well known or google-able - but he _had_ caught a flight more than a day in advance of the appointment so it wasn't completely unlikely...

"Well," Christian said, picking his pen up and tapping it against his notepad, "He knows the score. If he's not back, it's his problem not mine."

He flipped his notepad open to a page that was filled with scribbled handwriting.

"I suppose we should start then," he said, forcing a smile for the rest of the students. 

Only Fernando smiled back. Britta gave a half-hearted smile, but she kept glancing across at Sebastian who looked like he hadn't smiled since Kimi left. Heikki, who appeared to have joined the team without actually having any reason to be there, was day dreaming across at Mark. 

"Sponsorship seems good," Christian said, his voice switching to business mode, "Sebastian's Dad has offered to sponsor us _and_ donate some parts, so we should be good to start building within the next week or so."

Christian nodded to Fernando who grinned at the prospect of finally getting to put the car together.

"We'll need to put the company logo on the car and the helmet, but that shouldn't be an issue. We'll paint the chassis first and then figure out where it is best to place it," Christian said, showing them some transfers of the Vetteri logo, "I'd suggest the nose, the sides and the front of the helmet, but we'll see how it looks."

He tucked the transfers back into his folder and noticed Britta crinkling her nose - she had a cute nose, he thought. The logo was a dark green and Christian already had his doubts about how it would look on the colours they'd chosen for the car. Britta's expression confirmed his thoughts, but there was little they could do about it now.

"Speaking of the chassis," he continued, "It should be delivered by the end of the week. We'll lay it out in the garage and you'll have to start painting with it in pieces. We'll put it all together at the end of the project. I hope you can work that way?"

Britta nodded enthusiastically, excited that her part in the project would finally kick off. Sebastian shrugged his shoulders and Christian was fairly certain that he wasn't paying attention, but he let it slide. He trusted Britta would do a good job if Sebastian ditched the project with Kimi gone.

"Well," Christian said, running his pen down his notes, "That's all from me. Anything else?"

Fernando shrugged and Britta shook her head. Christian had soon realised that these meeting were fairly pointless. The art students had no interest in inputting on the engineering side and Fernando and Christian worked together whenever they worked on the project anyway, but it seemed like a professional way of keeping everybody up to date and he quite enjoyed Mark's free cakes.

"In that case, I best be off," he smiled, tucking his notepad into his rucksack and standing, "Lots of papers to mark."

Britta almost got to her feet to follow him, before realising it would invoke awkward questions if she left with him. She was increasingly worrying that what had happened between them was just a one night stand. She was trying not to care, but seeing Christian so often made her realise how much she'd enjoyed him and she wanted it again. She didn't care if it was just sex - at least it made her feel good.

"Are you going to apologise for your actions last week?" Heikki broke Britta's day-dream as he turned to Sebastian, "You were a complete dick to him, you know."

Sebastian glared at Heikki before throwing a dirty look across at the Australian who was cleaning the coffee machine. Heikki wasn't sure if he'd heard or not.

"He," Sebastian snarled, placing his hands on the table to push himself up from the chair, "Is a complete dick."

The blonde stormed out of the coffee shop, slamming the door so the the bell above it rattled and clanged loudly.

Fernando watched him leave and turned to look at Mark who winced at the sound of the door slamming. He saw his friends shoulders slump and his cheeks puff out before he continued cleaning. He couldn't help but wonder what was going on between Mark and Sebastian. He knew they were both gay, but Mark didn't seem the kind of guy to cause such a bad break up, so what the hell had happened between them?

He glanced at Britta, who shrugged her shoulders, putting her friends mood down to him missing Kimi. She knew she should go after him really, but she was fed up of cheering Sebastian up when she wanted some fun herself. 

She climbed to her feet, pecking Heikki on the cheek as a goodbye and ruffling Fernando's hair as she walked past.

"I'm gonna head home," she said, a plan already formulating in her mind, "See you guys later."

She could barely hide the grin as she rushed out of the coffee shop and down the street in the opposite direction to her house.


	23. Putting Plans to Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi is ignoring Sebastians calls, Heikki is trying to persuade Mark to speak up about the past and Britta puts her plan into action.

Kimi arrived on set early, being handed a robe and told to get ready in the changing rooms. He headed over to the mobile hut and began to prepare himself for the days shoot, wrapping the robe around himself and tying it at the waist before dropping his phone into the pocket and sitting on a chair, waiting to be called in to make up.

His phone buzzed again and Kimi didn't have to look at it to know who it was. Sebastian had called him several times that morning, following on from a day in which Kimi had to turn his phone off to avoid talking to his boyfriend.

It wasn't that he didn't _want_ to talk to him, it was more that he knew Sebastian would be angry he'd left without saying goodbye and he'd want to know whether he'd finished that dumb assignment. Not to mention the cost of answering the call - he was earning good money at this shoot, he didn't want to waste it all explaining everything to Sebastian on a long distance call.

"Kimi, we're ready for you," a runner with a headset and clipboard stuck her head around the door, beckoning for him to follow her to make up.

He slid his hand into his pocket and cancelled the call, holding the button a little longer so that his phone turned off entirely. He didn't need distractions today. If he got this right, he might not even need college again - he'd ditch engineering for the highs of modelling at the drop of a hat.

\-----

Heikki had popped into _Katerina's_ on his way home from college. The snow was beginning to melt, but the town was still quiet and the cafe was empty when he stomped the slush from his boots and hung his coat on the stand.

"Hot chocolate?" Mark grinned, guessing the order as Heikki opened his mouth to speak.

"Please!" Heikki replied, grinning at Mark knowing his order already, "How are you, anyway?"

Mark began to make the chocolate drink for his friend while he replied.

"Yea, not bad," he shrugged, "Bored of this rubbish weather and lack of customers."

"Mmm," Heikki nodded, leaning on the counter, "I was meaning more... After Sebastian?"

"Oh," Mark replied, before turning silent for a moment.

Heikki watched as Mark's face turned pensive and wondered whether to change the subject back to something less painful.

"I guess I'm beyond the point of anything he says being able to hurt me," Mark finally replied, passing a steaming mug to Heikki, "It's just he obviously isn't over... him. Despite Kimi coming along."

Heikki took the mug and took a small sip before realising the liquid was too hot to drink.

"Did you ever go back and speak to his Dad?" Heikki asked, pulling a stool towards the counter and perching on top of it, "He's always seemed fairly decent to me."

Mark raised an eyebrow before wiping the counter idly.

"It's not like he did much to help before," he said, "In fact he was just as much of a dick as Rocky, really."

Heikki nodded, silently contemplating how to continue. He took a slow drink of his chocolate, carefully blowing on it to cool it.

"I always thought Sebastian's dad was OK," he said, "I mean... He was the only parent from our group of friends who just accepted that I was gay when I first came out. Even my own parents tried to convert me back to girls. He just smiled, offered me a cup of tea and asked if I thought his shirt matched his tie - which it really didn't, so he ended up changing it."

Heikki stopped, realising he was waffling. He really did think Sebastian's Dad was a decent person though. Perhaps his Dad hadn't realised what was going on in the garage? Perhaps he had the same end of the stick as Sebastian and if Mark explained he'd realise the error he made. 

"I just mean... Maybe... now you're older... it might be worth confronting him," continued Heikki, "Then maybe he would realise how much it hurt you and that it was all because of you caring for Sebastian."

"Yea I'm sure he'd appreciate some apron clad Aussie barista turning up to his smart office and demanding a chat," Mark started, "What am I even suppose to do? Knock on his door, barge in and say 'Why the fuck didn't you help me when your mechanic raped me?'"

Heikki stared into his mug of hot chocolate, not sure what to say in reply. He hadn't really thought about what Mark would say to Sebastian's dad. He thought it would maybe clear the air a little if he saw him and got it off his chest, but maybe it was a bad idea after all.

"I just..." he began, not sure what to say, "I just thought maybe talking would help. Now it's been a while and the confusion of what happened isn't so fresh. Maybe he's realised he was wrong."

Mark sighed, running his hands through his hair before leaning on the counter and dunking a marshmallow into Heikki's drink.

"What if he doesn't listen?" Mark said, staring at his fingers, "What if he just tells me to get out again?"

"I could come with you," Heikki said, taking Mark's hands in his own and squeezing them, "If he tries to kick you out, I'll kick up a fuss. He knows I'm one of Sebastian's best friends, he won't just ignore something if I think it's important."

Heikki tried a grin at the Australian and was pleased when Mark smiled back.

"OK," Mark said, breathing out slowly, "You come with me to the garage. And then while we're there, I'll decide if I'm going to say anything or not. But don't force me if I can't do it."

"I promise," Heikki replied quietly, rubbing his thumb across Mark's fingers, "Can I have some more pink marshmallows?"

\-----

Britta sat with the bag on her lap biting her bottom lip as she stared at the blank new text she'd opened.

She hadn't looked at the purchase since she'd bought it after the meeting and she'd been putting off her plan over the weekend for fear of making a fool of herself. It was time now, though. She knew where Christian would be and she was sure her idea would work.

She grinned as she slid the garment out of the bag, dropping her phone to hold it against herself and admire just how delicate it was. The lace bodice had two straps on either side, leading to see-through panties which were nothing like as concealing as the knickers she'd ever normally wear. When she'd tried it on at the shop she'd flushed bright red even though she was alone in the changing room.

She grabbed her phone and quickly typed a message, sending it before she could stop herself:

_Come over to mine. I've got a surprise for you._

\-----

Christian's phone beeped at the side of the pile of papers he was marking. He glanced across, surprised to see the text was from Britta. He hadn't heard much from her since the night they'd spent together, only seeing her when they'd been busy at meetings for the competition.

He looked at the text and then back at the papers that were due to be marked in time for his first class in the morning.

 _Sorry_ he sent back _Too much marking. Can it wait until tomorrow?_

He placed his phone back on the desk, returning to his marking and quickly forgot about Britta's message.

What seemed like a few moments later, there was a knock at his door. He glanced at the clock and realised it was gone seven, almost an hour since he'd replied to the student. He looked at the phone and noticed she hadn't replied.

"Come in?" he called, wondering who would have come to his office at this hour.

Britta walked through the door. She was wearing a long fur coat that reached down below her knees and thick winter boots which ended somewhere underneath the coat.

She grinned at him, not saying a word as she unzipped the coat, letting it drop to the floor to reveal the lack of clothing she had underneath.

Christian gulped, dropping his pen as he looked her up and down.

"I heard the cupboard next door is a good place to go," she said, trying to sound sexy and not laugh at the Professor's expression.

Christian climbed to his feet nodding, but quickly changed his mind, scrambling the papers into a hasty pile and dropping them onto the floor. He turned to Britta and placed his arms around her waist, enjoying the feel of her soft, cold skin.

He picked her up and placed her onto the top of his desk, staring into her eyes as his hands slid up her body to cup her lace-clad breasts.

"The desk is better."


	24. Due Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The date for Kimi's assignment to be handed in finally arrives and Christian is worried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, sorry for taking ages updating this lately. i've kinda fallen out of love with this fic to be honest. i had a bit of a plan originally for how this was going to turn out but it felt like it was never ending, so i've changed it and hopefully within the next ten or so chapters it will come to a conclussion.
> 
> i'll try not to make it completely rubbish, but i didn't just want to leave it unfinished and i figured i owed it to the people that are reading and commenting to at least try and finish it, even if it's not how i originally wanted it to go.

Friday morning approached quickly and Christian was worried. He'd heard nothing from Kimi all week and the student hadn't attended any lectures. Nobody seemed to know where he was and every time Christian had tried to call him, his phone was either switched off or the call was ignored.  
Britta had text Christian each evening after their rendezvous and he'd duly gone round to her flat and spent a few hours in her bed - or on the sofa, or the kitchen table, or against the front door - but even that hadn't really stopped him wondering where the hell Kimi had disappeared to and whether he was going to have to kick him off the team. It would be a major blow if he did - Kimi was a great engineer when he put his mind to it, he was just easily distracted and that would be a bad thing when the race came around.

As he pulled into the college car park, he spotted a familiar car - Kimi's - parked at the side of the road and relief flooded through him. Perhaps he'd just been ignoring calls because he was busy working on the assignment. It would all be okay, he was sure.

\-----

Kimi raced across the campus towards the engineering department, aware that he had to reach Professor Horner's office before the man himself so that he couldn't be _fully_ to blame if it was after the 9am deadline.

His assignment was clutched tightly in his hands as he paced up and down the corridor outside the lecturers office. He knew it wasn't perfect - he'd written it on the flight back from America - but it was better than his first attempt, so that had to stand for something.

"Ah, so you haven't completely disappeared then," Professor Horner said, the relief evident in his voice as he turned the corner and spotted the student, "I hope you've got that essay for me?"

"Yep, here," Kimi replied, handing the project over as the Professor unlocked his office and stepped inside.

"I'll mark it for the meeting on Wednesday," Professor Horner said, grinning, "It better be good!"

The lecturer closed the door behind him and Kimi could only hope it was good enough to stay on the team. He'd heard nothing from the modelling company since the shoot and he was sure they would have contacted him immediately if they wanted him to sign up with their agency full time.

He figured he would just have to settle for second best - maybe if Fernando _did_ impress the scouts, the Spaniard would keep him on as engineer and he'd get some limelight that way. 

\-----

The meeting came around sooner than Christian would have liked. He had read through Kimi's paper over the weekend and found nothing to suggest that he'd made any effort with it. 

Half of the words were nonsense, he'd clearly copied a whole chunk from wikipedia - most of which was out of date - and worst of all, he hadn't even spell checked it at the end.

He'd spoken to the head of engineering about the re-try, suggesting they gave him another shot or sat the student down and gave him a stern talking to, but the principle had stepped in - Kimi was either off the team or out of college.

Christian had contacted Kimi as soon as he'd found out. Telling the boy there was nothing he could do. He'd seemed to take it well at first, but then he'd not shown up for lectures and the princple had been on the receiving end of an angry, drunken outburst. 

Following that, the principle had written the student a letter explaining that if he didn't buck up his attitude, he'd be out for good, and apparently that had arrived at Kimi's door just before the meeting.

"What the fuck?" he spat, slamming the envelope in front of the lecturer as they sat in _Katerina's_ , "Off the team AND out of college?"

Christian had been about to start the meeting, assuming Kimi wasn't joining them to say goodbye. He'd explained the situation to Britta when she'd been round for a steamy session in the shower, and apparently she had told the rest of the team before he'd had the chance.

"That's not what is says, Kimi," Christian started, but was immediately cutt off again.

"Yes it does. I tried my hardest with that assignment. With the time I had, it was the best I could do, not everything revolves around this college," he yelled, "You can stick your shitty team and your shitty course. It's bullshit. Come on, Seb."

Kimi stormed out of the cafe, throwing the door open so that it hit the wall and caused the whole room to shake.

Sebastian sat where he was, staring at the letter on the table. He didn't want to quit the team. He still had no idea where Kimi had been, only that it was something important he had to do in America, and he wanted to see how his design would turn out on the car. It wasn't his fault Kimi had messed up and his tutor had said that the competition would work towards extra credit for him.

Kimi opened the door again, glaring into the room as he stuck his head back inside.

"Seb," he snapped, "I said _come. on_."

"Sorry," Sebastian muttered to rest of the team, standing up and slowly putting his coat on, "I'll ... see you at college."

He patted Britta on the back, giving Professor Horner a look that he hoped said they would speak later as he joined his estranged boyfriend at the door.

"And you can forget Seb's Dad's sponsorship," Kimi growled, pushing Sebastian through the door, "We're both out."

Sebastian stammered and stuttered, trying to protest but Kimi push him out into the street, slamming the door shut and taking the artist's hand, dragging him away from the cafe.

"What the hell was all that about?" Sebastian asked, pulling his hand out of Kimi's grip and coming to a halt in the middle of the street, "There was no need for that. I don't _want_ to quit the team."

"You wouldn't even be on the team if it wasn't for me," Kimi snapped, attempting to grab Sebastian's arm again, "Come on, I missed you, let's go back to yours. I need to have some fun."

"No," Sebastian snapped, beginning to get angry now, "You never know. Professor Horner came to fix my car, he might have asked than for all you know. And you can't just disappear for a week, not tell me where you've been and then just expect me to fuck you on command. Is that all I am to you, some 'fun'?"

"I told you," Kimi growled, "I was in America. I had business. We have fun don't we? What's the problem."

"You're a fucking student, Kimi," Sebastian shouted, "What fucking business could you possibly have that drags you to America at short notice. And I was hoping we were a little more than fun. I guess if we're just 'fun' that's why you didn't feel like coming to say goodbye before you pissed off for a week."

"It doesn't even matter any more," Kimi snapped, "Look you either want to take me home or I'm going back to mine. I don't need this shit on top of everything else."

"Fuck you, Kimi," Sebastian spat, "Fuck. You."

Kimi spun on his heels, matching down the street away from Sebastian. He huffed audibly, punching his hands angrily into the air as he stormed back towards his car, leaving the art student gaping after him.

Sebastian glanced back down the street towards the cafe, wondering whether to go back and apologise to the team. He didn't really feel like having his friends analysing what had happened or questioning what was going on. They'd probably heard the argument anyway - even he didn't know why Kimi was acting like this.

He turned around, walking down the street in the opposite direction to Kimi, planning to head home and start work on the helmet. The paints and the chassis had arrived that morning, he might as well start on it since he had nothing better to do now.

Maybe painting would take his mind off the questions that were lingering at the back of his mind. Did Kimi ever really love him, or was it all just a bit of fun? Had he always planned to just ditch Sebastian when something better came along? Was his 'business' something - or someone - better?


	25. Pay Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kimi tries to stop Sebastian from rejoining the team but Sebastian has other plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay I finished this whole fic yesterday so i'm going to start posting chapters every other day until it's finished now. i hope you like how it's turned out. it wasn't really the original plan, but i think it works and then i can stop worrying about leaving this fic open ended having kinda fallen out with it.
> 
> (note that i updated this on friday as well, in case you missed that chapter)

"Sebastian!"

He tried to ignore the shouting, knowing exactly who it was and wanting nothing more than to get away before he caught up and tried to apologise.

"Seb, wait!"

A hand grabbed his arm and spun him around and Sebastian had no choice but to acknowledge the owner.

"What?" he said, "I've got a lecture, I can't talk."

"Please," Kimi said, "Just five minutes. I'm not allowed on campus now. I just handed in my student ID."

"Well then you had best get going before they call the cops and you're escorted out of here."

Sebastian started walking again, heading towards the art department and deliberately avoiding the route he would normally take that led through the engineering building.

"Look," Kimi said, running to keep up with Sebastian and walking backwards in front of him to make sure he was listening, "Just don't back down. You know Shitstian and Fernando are going to beg you to go back. They need your Dad's sponsorship. Just promise me you won't back down, yea. Fuck them, right?"

"I'm not going to go back," Sebastian snapped, "Because I never left in the first place. I'm still part of it. I still designed the paintwork and I'm going to see it through. You can't stop me. You don't own me. You can't even tell me where you were last week so why should I do anything to please you any more?"

"They screwed me over, Seb," Kimi said, "They got me kicked out of college. You can't be on their side?"

"Kimi, you quit college in a strop," Sebastian replied, "And you screwed yourself over by disappearing for _'business'_ when you had the assignment to do. I'm not paying for your mistakes. I bet you only hooked up with me so you could get my Dad's money for sponsorship. Was that it?"

He hadn't really thought about it before. Yeah, they'd started as a random fling after Kimi had almost run him down in the snow, but maybe Kimi had targeted him to get more money for the team and make himself look good. 

Well if that was the case, Kimi had another thing coming.

"What?" Kimi replied, gaping at Sebastian's suggestion, "Where did that come from?"

"Where were you last week?" Sebastian asked again, refusing to back down on finding out, "Tell me where you were and maybe I'll consider leaving the team."

"I told you," Kimi said, exasperated, "America. Business."

"What kind of business?" Sebastian said for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Modelling, you know," Kimi didn't look at Sebastian when he said the word and that made the art student cautious.

"You're lying," he said, stopping outside the art department with his hand on the door handle, "Just piss off. When you feel like you can be honest, maybe I'll listen. But just piss off, right."

He flung the door open and walked inside, wiping his boots on the mat before storming down the corridor into his lecture.

\-----

Sebastian couldn't concentrate during the lecture. He made notes, but he didn't remember taking them and looking back through them that afternoon he had no idea what they meant.

His mind was spinning. He knew it was over with Kimi. He had a feeling it was when the Finn had left and barely even said goodbye, but now it seemed so final.

Half of him was glad. He liked what he had with Kimi, and God, the guy was hot, but he never felt the love he had wanted from him. Maybe Kimi was right. It was 'fun' but was that really what Sebastian was after?

He slammed his pen down on the table, giving up on his essay and shoving his feet into his trainers as he pulled his coat down from the peg.

He knew it was stupid, but he wanted to piss Kimi off. Make him feel abandoned and angry like Sebastian had when he'd received that _half-arsed text about having to go away._

_It was petty, he knew that. But it was the only way he knew how to get back at Kimi._

_If he went to the garage and spoke to his father, he knew he'd be able to get the team more money. Maybe even convince him to pay for the travel and accommodation at some posh hotel for the upcoming testing. It wasn't much to attack Kimi with but if that sponsorship money meant as much to Kimi when he was on the team as it did now, he knew it would annoy him more than just refusing him sex._

_\-----_

_He walked the long way around to his father's garage. He didn't go there all that often any more - it didn't exactly have happy memories for him. While he walked, he tried to figure out what he wanted to say and calm down so that he'd put it across in a way that wasn't clearly trying to hit back at Kimi._

_Sebastian knew his dad could afford it. And his dad had always supported his choices, so he knew it didn't really matter how he asked - the money would come through. But he wanted his father to approach Professor Horner and make it seem like he was donating, rather than giving the lecturer the money as though he'd been begged for it._

__I thought it might be nice if you, as the team sponsor, gave us the money so that we could afford to travel and stop over in style. A flight rather than a cranky college mini bus and a decent hotel rather than a scabby hostel._ _

_He played the words through his head again as he walked into the reception area of the garage, smiling at the blonde who sat behind the desk and walked towards his fathers office._

_He nodded, deciding they were the right words to use and glanced into the small room his father did business from, stopping in horror at what he saw._

_Inside, he saw his father sat on the desk looking sympathetically at a couple that sat opposite him._

_One had his arm around the other. The second was in tears, wiping his nose and eyes on a tissue that his father had offered._

_Sebastian flung the door open and stepped inside._

_"What the fuck are you two doing here?" he growled._


	26. Truth Is Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian wants answers and is shocked when he gets them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok am i going to fast posting a chapter every other day now? i feel like the people that would normally comment on every chapter aren't doing and i'm worried they'll miss bits? ?? 
> 
> (in case you're one of them, there has been three chapters recently: Friday, Sunday and this one)

"What the fuck are you two doing here?" Sebastian growled the words as he glanced at the two men in his father's office.

Heikki looked as shocked as his father did at Sebastian's interruption. Mark hic-coughed, tears still running down his face as he tried to avoid the accusing glare.

"Sebastian," his father started, standing up from the desk and walking over to the door, "Now isn't a good time. Can you wait outside. We'll talk later."

His father took his arm and tried to guide him out of the room, but Sebastian shrugged him off, stepping further into the office and forcing Mark to look at him.

"No, I want to know what the fuck he's playing at," he snapped, forgetting the real reason he was there, "You told him never to come back, so why the hell is he here?"

"Sebastian, please," his father started again, but was cut off by his son slamming his hand against the table.

"What? Does he think he can bribe you into giving him his old job back? Is that it? Some shitty sob story so you'll feel sorry for him and let him work here again," Sebastian spat, "Don't fall for it. He's a liar. He's probably just using you to get his own way again. That's what he does. I think you should leave."

The last of Sebastian's words were aimed at the Australian who sniffled and nodded, slowly pulling himself up from his seat.

"No," Heikki said, his voice finally connecting with his brain, "No, Seb. Mark, stay here. You need to do this. You were doing so well."

Heikki pushed Mark back into the chair and nodded to Sebastian's father, who walked around the desk to his own seat.

"Sebastian, come outside," Heikki said, "Your dad and Mark... They've got stuff to sort out."

Heikki grabbed Sebastian's arm more forcefully than his father had and dragged him through the door. He closed it quickly behind him and pulled Sebastian so that he was completely out of the garage. It was cold in the car park and he'd left his coat on the chair in the office, but he needed to give Mark space to finish what he'd started.

Mark had managed to confront Sebastian's dad and the older man had apologised saying that he knew it was wrong. Mark just needed to get everything off his chest and make sure that Sebastian's father never made the mistake again - Heikki just needed to bide the time and stop Sebastian from getting back inside. He needed to let Mark finish.

"Why are you letting him do this?" Sebastian snapped, angrily pacing up and down in the doorway, "Why did you come with him? Why didn't you tell me? What the fuck, Heikki?"

"Calm down, Seb," Heikki replied, "It's not what you think."

"Why the fuck else would he be here?" Sebastian snarled back, "He's supposed to keep away. I heard my father say it. He ruined my life. He's _not_ doing that again."

Sebastian started for the door again but Heikki stopped him.

"Please, Sebastian," he said, his eyes pleading with his friend, "Just... give them time."

Sebastian stormed across the car park, his anger building up. His boyfriend, his ex-best friend, one of his current best friends, his fucking father. Who the hell else was going to disappoint him this weekend.

The anger was boiling right up to bursting point and half way across the car park he stopped and spun back around. Heikki was right behind him and they almost collided.

"I'm going back in and you can't stop me," Sebastian growled, shoving Heikki out of the way so that he stumbled and fell to the ground beside one of the show cars, "He's not screwing me or my father over again. Rocky was mine and he couldn't stand it. He's not having my father eating out of the palm of his fucking hands."

"Rocky wasn't yours," Heikki shouted, trying to get to his feet and ignoring his hands which were speckled with gravel, "He was an idiot. He deserved what he got."

"No!" Sebastian shouted, turning around and marching back to Heikki, pushing him back against the car, " Mark deserved what he got, the filthy fucking whore."

Sebastian pushed Heikki again for good measure, walking away from him towards the door to the garage.

"He was raped!" Heikki shouted, his feelings getting the better of him and immediately regretting saying the words as they left his lips.

There was a long silence. Sebastian stopped walking and the only sound was the entrance door to the garage slamming closed across the car park.

Heikki looked at Sebastian who was staring towards the garage. He followed his gaze and found that Mark was standing outside the door, Heikki's coat in his hand. His face was white, his eyes still red and swollen from crying, but anger was visible in them.

Mark marched towards Heikki and threw his coat at him.

"I can't believe you would just _shout_ that out across the car park," Mark said quietly, not looking at the photography student, "Just... get lost. It wasn't your story to tell. I should have known telling the fucking gossip of your group was a bad idea."

"Mark, I'm sorry I didn..." Heikki started, trying to explain as tears filled his eyes.

"Just go."

Mark's voice sounded so final and the tears broke through Heikki's eyelashes and fell down his cheek.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, tucking his coat under his arm as he turned to leave, "I'm so sorry."

\-----

Kimi sat in his car across the road from Sebastian's father's garage. He'd watched his boyfriend pacing up and down, yelling about something at Heikki. Heikki had tried to stop him getting into the garage, probably stopping him from telling his dad to quit giving them sponsorship.

He'd almost got out of the car and run over when Sebastian pushed Heikki to the ground, not wanting anybody to get injured, but then Mark had appeared and he looked upset. Kimi didn't want to deal with crying.

He watched as Heikki left, hiding low beneath the steering wheel as he went past his car. When he finally dared to slide up again, he looked across at the garage and saw Sebastian's father guiding Mark and Sebastian into his office.

Sebastian had his arm around Mark's shoulders and was rubbing his chest comfortingly..

Kimi looked down at his phone that was laid in his lap. He picked it up and replied to the text: _I'll take it._


	27. Anger & Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is angry at his father and wanted revenge. Heikki seeks the comfort of Britta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> change of plan, i'm going to post a chapter a day until this is done. i'm too impatient ^.^

“I can’t believe you let that happen!” Sebastian shouted.

His father was sat in his office chair and Mark sat opposite him, a cup of tea clutched in his hands. The Australian had calmed down, the tears drying up, but Sebastian was enraged.

He paced up and down the office, his face red with anger and he huffed between his words.

“You let him get away with it?” he continued, pointing accusingly at his father, “You let him do that and just walk away?”

He threw his arms in the air before turning violently and smashing his palm into the wall.

“And you sent Mark off and told him never to talk of it again? Never to come back.”

“Seb…” his father tried to cut in, but Sebastian smacked his hand down on the desk making Mark jump.

“Shut up!” Sebastian shouted, “All this time I’ve _hated_ Mark. Pined over the fucking _prick_ that... that did that to him and you never thought to tell me?”

“Please,” his father said, glancing out of the office window, “Calm down, Sebastian.”

“Calm fucking down?!” he shouted, “Calm. Fucking. Down?”

“Seb, shouting isn’t going to help,” Mark said quietly, the first words he had spoke since they entered the office.

Sebastian’s father had explained everything, only pausing when his assistant brought in a pot of tea. Sebastian had never felt so angry and ashamed. He was furious with his father for hiding the truth from him and ashamed with the way he’d treated Mark. Even more so for the fact he’d always hoped that he’d bump into Rocky again at some point and persuade him that he wasn’t just some stupid kid that worked for Daddy for some pocket money.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sebastian asked, turning to Mark.

“You wouldn’t listen,” Mark said, “You wouldn’t let me near you. And what was I supposed to say? Would you have believed me?”

Sebastian opened and closed his mouth, trying to find the right answer. He had no idea how he’d have reacted if he’d have known the truth. He was so enamoured with Rocky that he’d probably have found a way to make excuses for him. Probably even thought he was the guy that could change him – tame time.

“Look,” Sebastian’s dad started again, “I’ve apologised. I know it doesn’t mean a lot now, but I admit I was wrong with what I did. I should have called the police but I panicked. I didn’t want the stress on the company. It was bad and I messed up, I know. If there was a way to go back and change how I reacted I would but … It’s not possible.”

“It’s OK Mr. Vettel,” Mark said, placing the empty mug on the desk, “Its… I’m dealing with it now.”

“It’s not OK,” Sebastian cut in, “Seriously we should go and find the guy. We should make him pay.”

Sebastian stormed to the office door and flung it open, striding across the reception area and out into the car park. Mark jumped up from his chair and chased after him, grabbing him by the arm just before he reached his car.

“Seb, there’s no point,” he started.

“Yes. There is every point,” Sebastian said, “He should pay. Fuck. What a dick. Urgh. I want to beat the shit out of him.”

Mark laughed. It was the last thing he expected to find himself doing having just had his painful past bought to light but Sebastian’s reaction was too much.

“Seb, he’d beat you to a pulp if you even went near him,” he said, placing an arm on the art students shoulder and massaging it with his fingers, “He’s a complete ass. And besides, he’s in prison. I looked him up before I moved back here. He beat his girlfriend up and was locked up for GBH. He won’t be bothering anyone for a while.”

Sebastian’s shoulders sagged and he half heartedly punched his fist into his car.

“Fuck Mark,” he said, his voice shaking with emotion, “I’m so sorry. I’m so _so_ sorry. I’ve been such a dick.”

“It’s OK, Seb,” Mark replied, wrapping his arm around Sebastian’s shoulder and pulling him into a hug, “I… understand. Lets… put it behind us. How about you come back to mine. We’ll have a coffee and I’ll tell you everything. Properly.”

Sebastian nodded, wiping tears from his eyes as he pulled himself out of Mark’s hug and opened the passenger door of his car for the Australian to climb inside.

\-----

Britta was still panting after Christian had rolled off her when the letterbox on her front door flapped and Heikki’s voice shouted into the hallway.

“Britta, I know you’re in there. Please. Let me in.”

It sounded as though he was crying. She could hardly leave him outside. If he was upset, he wouldn’t leave until she let him in.

“I have to answer it,” she said, rolling onto her front and running her fingers along Christian’s chest, “You have to hide.”

“Urgh,” Christian said, “Can’t I just stay here. He won’t come into the bedroom, surely?”

“Please,” Britta said, climbing out of bed and grabbing her clothes from the floor, “Just hide. I’d feel better if you hid.”

She picked Christian’s clothes up from the floor and thrust them into his grip as he climbed out of bed, opening the cupboard door and pushing him inside. The bedroom smelt of sweat and sex, so she opened the window, leaning out and shouting down to Heikki.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” she called, pulling her jeans on and kicking one of Christian’s shoes under the bed as she rushed out of the room.

“I need a hug,” Heikki announced as he walked through the door, wrapping his arms around Britta’s neck and sobbing loudly, “I screwed up. Everybody hates me.”

“Hey,” Britta said, soothingly, “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Mark trusted me and I broke that trust,” he said, tears flowing down his cheeks, “I messed up. He’ll never forgive me.”

Britta guided Heikki into the kitchen and flicked the kettle on, running her fingers through her hair and hoping it didn’t look too much of a mess.

“Sit down,” she said, pointing to the chairs at the kitchen table and praying that Christian wouldn’t attempt to leave the cupboard, “Tell Auntie Brit all about it.”


	28. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britta starts painting the car but is surprised by how enjoyable she finds it and Heikki gets a bit of a shock.

Heikki had told Britta everything. She’d listened intently for hours. Dried his tears. Made him countless cups of tea and he’d finally made her promise never to speak of anything he’d told her. He knew he could trust his friend. She was his best friend, after all.

He’d wanted to sleep over. Cuddle up like they used to and fall asleep talking about all the hot guys at university, but Britta had wanted to spend the night alone, so she’d let him out late in the evening with the advice to go to Mark’s first thing and apologise.

He found himself outside the door to _Katerina’s_ before Mark had opened up. He paced up and down in the street, trying not to cry at the thought of Mark hating him for what he’d done.

The door lock clicked and snapped him from his thoughts.

“Mark,” he said, rushing to the door and letting himself into the cafe, “Can we talk please?”

Mark gestured to one of the tables and Heikki sat down, patiently waiting whilst the Australian made two coffees and sat opposite him.

“I came to apologise,” Heikki whispered, staring into the liquid in his mug, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blurted it out. Sebastian wouldn’t calm down. It just… came out. I’m so sorry.”

Mark watched as Heikki’s thumb rubbed up and down the handle of the mug. There was a long silence before he finally spoke.

“It’s OK, Heikki,” he said, “Actually it…”

He was cut off by the door that lead up to his apartment opening and Sebastian walking into the cafe wearing a towel around his waist.

“Oh…” Sebastian said, pausing when spotted Heikki at the table and blushing, “I’ll … Err…”

He pointed back up the stairs and began to retreat.

“Wait,” Mark said, gesturing for him to join them, “Look. Heikki, I was angry yesterday and I’m sorry I shouted at you. But… Well. I… Seb… We’re OK now.”

Mark was blushing by the end of the sentence, not really sure how to explain what had happened after he’d told Sebastian the full story. He’d just wanted comfort at first but then his hands began wandering and before long they’d both been blinded by passion, spending most of the night tasting every inch of each other, the stress of the day and the past forgotten as they finally came together.

“I… I see,” Heikki said, trying to suppress the grin as he looked from one red face to the other, “Do… You want me to go?”

“No… It’s fine,” Sebastian and Mark both said in unison, “It’s fine.”

Heikki grinned again, noticing that Sebastian wasn’t actually wet despite the towel.

“I think I’ll go,” he said, giving Sebastian a knowing look, “I’m happy for you both. Really I am. I’ll… leave you to go back to… What you were doing.”

He climbed to his feet, still grinning as he walked to the door and flicked the ‘Open’ sign around to ‘Closed’ and winked as he shut the door behind him.

\-----

“So where is Sebastian?” Christian asked, walking around the sheets and pallets of paint that Britta had laid around the garage as she painted the chassis, “Aren’t you supposed to be working on this together?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, “I called in at his house on the way into college, but there was no answer. He’ll probably be in later.”

She shrugged as she turned back towards the nose of the car, delicately painting Sebastian’s design, pushing her hair out of her eye with the back of her hand. She was aware that she was wearing an unflatteringly large shirt and paint stained jeans in front of Christian. He’d only seen her in her underwear lately – she hoped it didn’t put him off.

A hand slid along her side, around her waist and down her thigh.

“Well since he’s not here…” Christian whispered in her ear, taking the paintbrush with his free hand and throwing it onto the sheet.

Britta giggled, spinning around and pushing her hands up underneath Christian’s shirt, pulling it over his head. She threw the shirt to the ground and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her lips against his as he picked her up and laid her on top of the unpainted front of the car.

His hand slid down to her jeans zipper and he slowly pulled it down, pulling them down as she removed her own shirt. He slid his hands back up her thighs and kissed up her torso until he reached her neck, sucking bruises as he removed her knickers and pull his stiffening cock free from his own pants.

She sighed loudly as his fingers played inside her, leaning backwards and closing her eyes as he opened her up and slowly slid inside her.

He thrusted slowly, his hands on her shoulders, pressing her down onto the car as she arched her back and moaned loudly.

Christian wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, laying her down on the sheet, ignoring the pallets of paint that he laid her in before she rolled on top of him, taking control and teasing him, her hips hovering above his hard cock, making him lift to meet her.

She lowered herself slowly onto him and they both closed their eyes, panting as they made love, their skin coloured in purple, blue and red as they rolled about the sheets and in between the pieces of chassis.

Sebastian gaped in the doorway. Watching his best friend and the engineering lecture cavorting and gasping and groaning, lost within one another. 

That certainly wasn’t what he’d expected to find when he arrived at college.

\-----

Heikki was happy for his friends, he’d meant that. He was a little bit miffed that he’d missed his shot with Mark. The Australian was hot, but he’d get over it. He’d done it before.

On his way home from cafe he’d stopped in the corner shop and bought himself a copy of his favourite gay magazine. He was sure there would be someone in there to satisfy him, even if he had to use his own hand under the sheets like a school boy.

He laid in bed now, his hands in his pants tickling the end of his half hard cock as he flicked to the centre page, gulping as his eyes slid up the page and took in the large cocks that dangled between the legs of the two men in the picture.

He cock stiffened and his fingers wrapped around it, slick with pre come as he slowly started pumping his hand up and down.

His eyes moved further, taking in two large hands placed on the hips of the other man, positioned so that the rock hard abs of both men were still visible.

Heikki moaned. Imagining those hands were what was wrapped around his cock. Imaging he could lick his tongue along the abs on the way down to tasting the cocks that were so close to touching just below the centrefold.

His eyes finally moved up to the mens faces and his hand stopped.

He shrieked, flinging the magazine across the room and scrabbling up the bed, trying to get as far away from it as possible as he tangled himself in the blanket.

What the flying fuck was Kimi doing in the centrefold of _Boyz_?


	29. Testing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team finally make it to testing but it doesn't quite go to plan...

Testing came around sooner than any of the team had expected. As Fernando drove out of the pits in his car, the team had cheered their success in getting it ready and finally seeing the vehicle in motion.

Sebastian was surprised how much had changed within the month leading up to the event.

Kimi was gone. At first Sebastian had felt guilty about what he'd done with Mark. He hadn't exactly split up with Kimi, they'd just had a row, but the Finn had never called and Sebastain didn't see him about town. Eventually he'd stopped feeling bad and decided that his relationship with Mark, now whole again, had waited long enough and the chemistry from their younger days returned. Mark was damn hot and at least seemed to care about Sebastian.

Britta was a lot more bubbly than normal. Though he hadn't actually gotten around to asking her about _that_ day in the art room, he suspected it was because of Christian. 

Heikki was quiet and pensive, but that was probably a good thing.

Britta was sat at the back of the garage, Christian and the few engineering students he'd selected as a pit crew pouring over the data from the car and preparing for quick modifications. Heikki was out somewhere around the circuit taking photos of Fernando driving. Sebastian decided that now was as good a time as any to bring up what he'd seen.

"So," he said, pushing himself up onto the counter to sit beside his friend, "Any gossip?"

Britta looked at him with a bemused expression on her face.

"Meaning _you_ have gossip but you don't just want to come out with it," she laughed, "Spill."

Sebastian looked at her, wondering how the best way to bring it up was.

"Errrm," he began, "Well. I saw something in the art room a while back. Something... shocking."

He paused, watching Britta's expression to see if she knew what he was referring to. There was nothing to suggest that she understood.

"Something... Like... You..." he continued, raising an eyebrow as her face switched from passive confusion to horror struck.

"Fuck. You saw us?" she hissed, trying to keep her voice quite, "Fuck. Why didn't you say something before? Did anybody else see?"

"I didn't know how to bring it up," he whispered back, glancing behind him as Heikki walked in and waved.

He lowered his voice further.

"Why the fucking fuck were you fucking Christian on the car?" he asked.

"WHAT?!" Heikki shrieked, apparently having super-hearing and rushing over to join them, "You fucked a lecturer?"

"From what I saw, he instigated it," Sebastian said, flashbacks of Christian pushing Britta against the front of the half built car filling his memory.

Heikki looked like he was about to burst. He spun on his heels, marching out into the pit area and grabbing Christian's arm, twisting him around and punching him across the face.

"Fucking a student?" he shouted, "Are you for _real_? Do you know how _NOT_ legal that is?"

Christian rubbed his cheek before grabbing Heikki's arm and dragging him back inside the garage, not bothering to check if anybody had noticed. Britta stood at the back of the garage in a state of shock. Half of the paddock had heard Heikki shouting.

"Keep your voice down," Christian hissed, glaring at Britta, "What the fuck have you told them?"

Britta opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the words to reply, but Sebastian answered for her.

"I saw you," he said, "In the art room. Anybody could have walked in and seen you. You weren't exactly careful. Or quiet."

Britta flushed and Christian turned red, but she could tell that his cheeks were colouring with anger.

"Look it meant nothing," he said, throwing a look at Britta that told her he meant it, "A one off. Nobody got hurt and it should never have happened. If you tell anybody I'll make sure you're thrown off the team and out of college. Follow your precious Kimi. Who will the principle believe? An art student or a professional engineer and lecturer?"

"Meant nothing?" Britta spat, not caring that some of the engineering students were entering the garage, showing some official looking people their work, "A one off? What about all the other nights at my house. What about the night we got snowed in? How could you say it was nothing. It wasn't nothing when you were fucking me and grunting about how much you wanted more."

She had her face right up to Christian's. Rage filling her as she re-heard him saying that their evenings together had meant nothing to him. His eyes were almost bulging out of his face with anger.

"You were easy," he spat back at her, "You didn't exactly take a lot of persuasion. It was you who came begging for me, half the time."

"Excuse me," a voice broke in, stern and angry sounding, "Professor Horner. A word. Now."

The professor's face was pale, a look of horror in his eyes as he followed the owner of the voice out of garage. He cast a look back at Britta as he left, but all she saw in his eyes was hate.

"Who was that?" Sebastian asked, wrapping his arm around Britta as tears burst from her eyes.

"That was the college Principle," one of the engineers replied, visibly annoyed, "Came to see how we were getting on. I don't think he expected to hear about who some of us were _getting it on_."

\-----

The team had been kicked out of the race track. Fernando was fuming, his chance to impress the talent scouts ruined before they'd really started. Most of the engineering students were in the bar, drinking their way through it since they had nothing else to do for the rest of the day and months of their hard work had gone to waste.

Christian had disappeared. Britta had tried to call him but his phone had run through to voicemail and when he'd finally called back it had been the principle telling her not to call the lecturer again. He advised her how much trouble Professor Horner was in and to stay away from him.

Heikki and Sebastian sat in her room, trying to cheer her up, but nothing seemed to be working. She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, re-running the words the Professor had said so casually to her friends. Right in front of her. _'It meant nothing.' 'You were easy.'_

"Hey I've got something that will make you laugh," Heikki said, suddenly remembering the magazine that was in his bag.

He'd been meaning to show the gang for a while, but was waiting to make sure that Sebastian was definitely over Kimi before bringing it up.

"I bought _Boyz_ a while back and _guess_ who was on the centrefold," he said, opening the magazine and dropping it into Sebastian's lap.

The art student gaped, looking at the two men on the page looking lustfully into each others eyes, their hands on each others hips, the tips of their cocks bare milli-meters apart.

"What the f..." Sebastian started, not sure whether to laugh or cry, "Why is the page all fingered?"

He turned to Heikki, a grin on his face as his friend flushed.

"I read those pages from the bottom up," Heikki said, "Believe me if I'd known he was _that_ big I'd have been fighting you for him."

Sebastian snorted, imagining the boy he'd slept with for fun in his first year trying his luck with Kimi - the guy who fucked and left and came back and expected you to be OK with it.

"Do you think this was where he was? When he went missing," Sebastian said, handing the magazine back to Heikki as Britta peered over their shoulders and covered her eyes in horror, "Do you reckon that guy is why he didn't answer my calls or texts."

"Who cares," Heikki said, shutting the magazine and sliding it back into his bag, "You've got Mark now."

"I know," Sebastian said, grinning at the thought of Mark, his heart pining to be with him now, but knowing that the coffee shop was hundreds of miles away and he wouldn't be back there for another twenty-four hours, "I guess it makes sense now."

He shrugged, leaning back against the bed and Britta let out a long sigh and buried her face in the quilt.

"How about we go and join the engineers and blind ourselves with tequila?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter is a bit of a mess. this is probably the start of where the story changed a lot from the original plan and became shortened so i could get it finished.


	30. Goodbyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fernando, Britta and Sebastian put the past behind them and look to the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Jules Bianchi. You'll be sorely missed by friends, family and fans. I hope, wherever you are now, you know that you were loved and will always be remembered. x

Fernando sat in Christian's office. The shelves were bare, the desk empty. The last few pens and pencils spread across the desk waiting to be thrown into a box.

"What are you going to do?" he asked, watching the lecturer run his hands through his hair as he glanced around the room to check he had everything.

"I don't know," Christian replied, "Maybe go work in a garage or something. Somewhere far away from here. I'll never teach again, that's for sure."

Fernando nodded. He'd been in the lecture when the principle had come in to explain that Professor Horner would no longer be teaching them. He'd told the engineering students that Christian was leaving and that the team had been disqualified from the competition. He hadn't gone into details but it was clear there was no chance of getting the decision reversed.

"At least there won't be an investigation," Christian said, trying to force a smile, "As long as I leave quietly and without redundancy pay they're taking my word on it that Britta was just as involved as I was."

Fernando had heard the story from Britta herself. They had all been in the cafe when she'd explained how it had happened. Fernando wouldn't have blamed her for lying and blaming Christian when the principle had questioned her - he had obviously made out he more into her than he'd said at testing - but she'd told the truth and that had saved Christian a lot of trouble.

"You know you were the only good tutor I had, si?" Fernando said as Christian picked up the box of his belongings and walked towards the door.

He followed the former lecturer out into the corridor.

"Why did you have to fuck up?" he continued, starting to get angry, "I could have been a good driver. Maybe I still can. But this was my chance to get out into the racing world. You shouldn't have fucked her. You ruined my chance."

"And I ruined my own career, Fernando," Christian said, snapping at his student as he turned around and stopped walking, "Look run along to whoever the hell is teaching you now. I don't care anymore. Your racing career wasn't in my hands. If you were good, don't you think you'd have made it by now?"

Fernando gaped, the shock of Christian's words almost slapping him across the face. The lecturer turned and kicked the door to the engineering department open, stalking across the grounds towards the car park and out of sight.

\-----

"He was a dick," Fernando said, sitting in the college canteen opposite Britta, "He deserves what he gets."

Britta snorted. Half of her wanted to call Christian, apologise and beg him to forgive her, but the other half was still angry at how he'd spoken about her. She knew that if he wasn't around it would be easier to get over him. Fernando seemed to have come to the same conclusion and it sounded as though Christian didn't really give a crap about anyone beside himself.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and placed it on the table in front of her, searching through her contacts for Christian's name before sliding it across the table to Fernando.

"Will you do the honours?" she said, grinning at the Spaniard who smiled back at her.

He picked the phone up, tapping a few buttons until the a pinging sound told Britta that the number was deleted.

"Congratulations," Fernando said, handing the phone back to her, "The second step is to get blind drunk and find a rebound."

He grinned widely at her as she tucked the phone back into her pocket.

"Are you offering?" she laughed.

Fernando opened his mouth to reply but his phone began ringing, buzzing across the table beside his coffee.

"Hello?" he said, not recognising the caller ID, "Yes, speaking?"

Britta watched as his eyes filled with shock and he stood up from the table. He covered the mouth piece of his phone and mouthed 'I'm sorry I have to go', before rushing out of the canteen, talking animatedly to whoever was on the other end.

\-----

When Britta finally reached her flat, having walked home from college to clear her head, she found Sebastian at her front door. 

The rain was falling heavily and he was drenched head to toe, but he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and thrust it into Britta's hands.

"How could he even think of doing this?" Sebastian said, signalling for Britta to read the note while she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

She made tea and settled opposite Sebastian at the kitchen table before reading the note. 

It was handwritten in messy scrawl, the ink blotchy from the rain, but there was no mistaking that it was signed 'Kimi'. It explained that he'd left for America. He'd found himself a job working as a model and it paid more than enough for him to live the high life he wanted. He wondered if Sebastian would like to come out and join 'them'.

"He's gone to America again?" Britta asked when she'd finished reading.

"Apparently. All I've heard is what is written here," Sebastian replied, "I don't know why he thinks I'd want to go out there and join him. Who the hell is 'them' anyway? Probably that guy from the magazine. He's obviously moved on. So have I. I'm not even going to reply."

Sebastian crinkled his nose as he folded the paper and stood up, crossing the kitchen and lighting the gas hob. Britta couldn't help but think that Sebastian was handling this a lot better than she'd imagined he would a few weeks ago. It seemed like her friend would never get over Kimi. Maybe Heikki's big mistake had been for the best.

He held the paper into the flame, letting it burn as he walked over to the sink and dropped it into the basin. Britta joined him, watching until the paper was turned to ash, turning the tap on to wash it down the plug.

"Forget about him," she said, "You've got Mark now. America might sound like fun, but Kimi definitely is not."

"Agreed," Sebastian said, turning the hob off again and sitting back at the kitchen table, "Now, what are we going to do for extra credit now our artwork for the competition isn't going to count?"


	31. Happy Endings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things have finally settled down and the gang meet up for one last coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so this is just a silly little chapter to round everything off. oh and a last chance for a bit of smut ;)

Britta, Heikki and Sebastian sat around their favourite table in the corner of _Katerina's_. Mark was making coffee, humming happily at the thought of these being the last ones he would make for customers - he'd call his friends that, even if they weren't paying. 

Sebastian's Dad had offered him is old job back, doubling the pay he used to earn and promising to train him as a salesman so that he could work on commission in the future. _And_ get a company car. He was glad to be leaving the cafe behind, even if it meant that he wouldn't see his friends as often, but he was part of the group now and he was sure they'd still have plenty of fun together.

"It's going to be sad not having tea served with a hot Australian accent," Heikki said, winking at Sebastian as Mark placed their drinks before them.

"Hey, I'll have a coffee machine at the garage," Mark said, grinning, "I could make you tea there if you popped in."

Heikki laughed, smiling as Sebastian kissed Mark when he sat beside him.

"It's really cool about Fernando," he said, grinning even more now that he knew the photos he'd taken at the disaster of testing wouldn't completely go to waste.

"I know!" Mark said, his arm around Sebastian's shoulders as he leant forward to pick up his mug, "His dream come true."

"Almost," Britta said, "His dream is Formula 1."

"Yea but GP3 is part of the way there," Sebastian said, "And he's got Vetarri sponsorship. He'll make it, I know it."

The four friends all nodded in agreement. Fernando had received a call from one of the scouts that had been at the competitions testing. Despite the fact he drove less than ten laps, they'd seen his potential and wanted to give him a shot.

"And anyway, at least it solves our extra credit problem," Sebastian continued, grinning at Britta.

"How?" she asked, a confused expression on her face.

"Well he's still going to need helmets, isn't he?" Sebastian replied, smiling at his own genius.

"He's invited us all to go down and watch him testing," Mark said, "He said he could do with the support."

"That would be fun!" Heikki said, "I could take some more shots. I could set him up a website. Do you think he'd like that?"

"Yea," Mark said, "Probably wouldn't do him harm having him a site to get him noticed."

"And we could paint flags and banners," Britta added, excitedly, "We could use them for extra credit, too!"

They sat in silence as they sipped the rest of their teas, quietly placing the mugs on the tray and waiting for Mark to finish washing up and finally close the cafe.

The four friends left the building at the same time, Mark and Sebastian only to walk Heikki and Britta down the road before retracing their steps back to the bedroom above the cafe.

"It's kinda like the end of an era," Britta said, for some reason feeling emotional after watching the cups being stacked on the shelf, "Doesn't it feel strange?"

"I guess," Sebastian said, "Crazy year."

"I hasn't all been bad though," Mark said, squeezing Sebastian's hand and smiling at his boyfriend, "And it's all worked out right in the end."

They reached the bottom of the high street and Britta paused, glancing down the road that led to her house.

"We should... probably get back," Sebastian said, raising his eye brows at Mark and barely concealing the knowing smile.

"Yea, we should," Mark said, grinning as he pinched his boyfriends buttocks and made him squeal.

Britta and Heikki looked at one another awkwardly.

"We'll see you later then," she said, "I booked a booth at the club, so come to mine for eight. Then we can celebrate your new job properly, Mark."

"Sure," Mark said, wondering if he would manage to drag himself away from Sebastian and their bed to go out and party later on, "See you then."

Sebastian leaned over and kissed Britta on the cheek before following Mark back down the street towards the cafe. They'd barely gone five steps before they broke into a run, giggling with anticipation.

"Wow," Heikki laughed, wrapping his arm around Britta's shoulder and starting to walk down the street, "It's almost sickening."

Britta laughed, sliding her fingers through Heikki's which were hanging over her shoulder.

"It's nice to be back to normal again, I guess," she said, resting her head on Heikki's shoulder, "No more secrets. Sebastian getting laid and us two trying to avoid hearing it."

Heikki laughed, poking his finger into Britta's waist and making her squirm away from him.

"Back to you being single and me trying to get you laid, you mean," he said, untangling his fingers from hers and beginning to run down the street.

"Oi, you little shit," Britta laughed, trying to slap him on the arm but missing as he raced away from her, "I bet you that I pull before you tonight."

Heikki stopped running as she finished the sentence.

"Oh-ho," he laughed, linking his arm through hers as she caught up with, "You're on, sister."

\-----

"Would Kimi have done this?" Mark purred as he licked the inside of Sebastian's thigh, stopping painstakingly close to his balls and planting kisses back down to his knees.

Sebastian whimpered, shaking his head as Mark repeated the act on the his other thigh. He'd told the Australian about the letter and how he'd burned it without replying - Mark was determined to prove to him that it was the right move. They'd left Mark's celebrations early for him to do so. 

The art students hard cock began to leak, anxious for it's first touch. Mark obliged, running his tongue up the length and licking it clean. His tongue flitted at Sebastian's slit before he paused again, glancing at his boyfriends face as he squirmed in the sheets.

"Would Kimi have done this?" Mark repeated, crawling up the bed and placing his lips on Sebastian's, allowing the student to taste his salty lips as he thrust his tongue inside his mouth.

Mark manoeuvred his body so that he was straddling Sebastian. He's stiff cock dangling beside the German's, lightly brushing against it before he crawled back down the bed, planting kisses in line down Sebastian's chest.

He stopped as his navel, licking his boyfriends belly-button before continuing downwards.

"Would he have done this?" he said, a wicked glint in his eyes before quickly taking Sebastian's cock whole in his mouth and sucking hard enough to cause Sebastian to cry out.

He sucked Sebastian dry, leaving the German panting and exhausted as he finally pulled the sheets over their sweaty bodies and lay his head on the pillow beside his boyfriends.

"Would Kimi have done this?" he asked, staring into Sebastian's eyes once he'd finally caught his breath.

"What?" Sebastian asked after waiting a moment or two to see what Mark was going to do.

The Australian shuffled Closer to Sebastian, closing his eyes and placing a slow, long kiss on his lips.

"I love you," Mark said, pulling away slightly and staring back into Sebastian's eyes before kissing him again, not caring whether the German replied or not.

Sebastian's heart pounded, almost flipping over in his chest as Mark wrapped him in his arms and kissed him passionately. 

No. Kimi would never have said he loved Sebastian, no matter how much 'fun' they had, but that didn't matter now. Sebastian could _feel_ how much Mark loved him. He didn't need the Australian to say it, but it made his heart soar to hear it.

When they broke apart he took a few moments to regain his composure, before placing his head on Mark's chest and playing idly with his chest hair.

"I love you too," he said, smiling as he sensed Mark's heart quicken at the words.

They laid together for a while, just enjoy one another's presence without talking or touching. Forgetting that life went on around them, lost in one another's company.

Sebastian's stomach growled, breaking the silence.

"Kimi would always make breakfast, though," he laughed, his eyes shining with mischief as he rolled free from Mark's arms and slapped him on the ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another fic finished! i have to say i'm kind of glad to be rid of this one. i'm sorry the ending was so rushed and kinda skipped through time more quickly that the rest of it, but i'd rather have it finished than leave it half way through.
> 
> thanks to everybody that read, commented and kudoed. it means a lot. this was never meant to be such a long and chaptered fic and it was my first attempt at anything smutty so i'm glad to see it wasn't completely horrendous.
> 
> sorry if the ending was disappointing. x


End file.
